


Shisou no Karasu

by Tobi_Black



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Families of Choice, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-11-03 21:57:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 72,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10976139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tobi_Black/pseuds/Tobi_Black
Summary: Sakura's just a child, a civilian, considered harmless. No one looks at the pink-haired little girl and sees the kunoichi, the shinobi, that she could become. They don't see the calculating glint in her eyes, nor the claws hidden. They don't see beyond the shy smile and tears. They don't see the loyal heart willing to give everything for those loved.Not yet.Currently being revamped under a new name: Karasu no deshi/Crow's Disciple.





	1. To Find a Fledgling

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Will never own Naruto. (It would cost far too much for copyrights.)  
> (The things I could fix, ah, the things I could fix. Alas, not going to happen, so can't change canon. It’s why fan fiction exists after all.)
> 
> Chapter Summary: A girl who just lost her mother. A boy considered a demon. An early encounter and the resulting butterfly effect can change fate.  
> Unbetaed  
> 5-22-17

It was late, the sky overcast with dark clouds laying from one end of the horizon to the other, with rain pouring down in a torrential downpour as the rainy season began with the spring. The heavy vegetation around and in the Village Hidden in the Leaves was quickly drenched, plants bowing under the weight of the water and opening great streams of rain through the mud to go downhill toward the Village Entrance Gate as Konohagakure no Sato was centered in a shallow dip of the gentle hills in the heart of Fire County, backed by the carved stone of the Hokage Monument.

Most of the village was, if not indoors, at least undercover if it was possible in this weather, having had over sixty years of experience that the rainy season that made up the start of spring, began with very little warning, hit hard, and would take several days to clear up enough for life to return to normal. Of those that were out, where nin running urgent courier missions that could not wait for the downpour to weaken, almost all of those within Konoha itself, nin running patrol around the village Wall or in the forests around the village, the two rather unfortunate gate-keepers, some Uchiha apart of the Military Police, and ANBU patrolling the village proper.

Even with the rain, there were several orphans created by Kyuubi’s Attack several years previous – five years and five months almost exactly – that were out and about in the streets. This was mostly because, while the Orphanage, one of the oldest establishments in the village, was a great idea and a sad necessity, considering their world and that this was one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, was not-so-great in actuality. Whether this was merely because these orphans were mostly children of small no-name shinobi and kunoichi families - with clans taking care of their own, and civilians having their own orphanage, so that these were those who’d had a rather adventurous parent who’d either married a ninja or become one and been disowned because of it, or had been an orphan themselves – with slightly more developed chakra systems than the standard civilian, or because while the Hokage did his best, orphans were rather far down his list of priorities and it’s condition was a little run-down. Mostly because there were those on his Council that were minimizing funding there because of the existence of a certain jinchuuruki there, and with a shortage of Academy teachers that could be spared to supervise for the long-term, combined with how few ninja wanted to care for the ‘Amaretsu-cursed hell-spawn with endless energy, vindictive intent, and boundless talent for finding pointy objects whether or not that that was the original intent of the object or not’ – people had to be forced to work there.

Children, being the intuitive and sensitive creatures that they were, knew that they were unwanted and unwelcome, particularly when little effort was made otherwise, and therefore sought any possible way to be away from the Orphanage when not forced to be there. Hence why those that were old enough to walk, and therefore escape the clutches of the currently-assigned chuunin who was trying to corral those that had hesitated to go out before the weather worsened into doing a thorough clean of the Orphanage, which suffered from the neglect of money for its upkeep, it’s age, purposeful neglect, and abuse by all in it, and just from housing anywhere from ten or fifteen to thirty of the ‘hell-spawn’, were currently out in the rain.

Two of those that had escaped, were a long-time prisoner, and a recent detainee, roughly five and a half, and six years old respectively. Even in such a small group as their current seventeen, the two had yet to interact with each other; the younger because he spent as little time as but necessary there, merely for two of the three meals a day, if that, and curfew, and the older because she did not wish to attract the type of attention the other drew with his mere existence alone, which was further aggravated by his trouble-making, as she had only been there a handful of days more than a week so far.

Even in their escape, they had not interacted; the younger had skipped out in the earliest hours after dawn, when the sun, while not bright and shining, had been at least up, and the sky was cloudy but not dark with arriving rain yet, and she mid-way through breakfast when the chuunin had announced his plans to clean when it became clear that the clouds were heavy-laden with rain and headed directly towards them. He had run for the Hokage Monument after swiping food not-good-enough-to sell from the few vendors that had attempted to open before the rain had arrived, to hide in the shallow dips in the rock beneath the chin of the Yondaime, where it was mostly dry. She hurried for the Archives, where scrolls of all types, containing all types of information, a section of which was available to her as a citizen, even as a civilian.

It had been where her mother had worked until a a few weeks previous since the Kyuubi Attack had crippled her and forced her to retire as an active-duty kunoichi, until when Kumo shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Clouds had infiltrated, and while part of their group had attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress (and failed), some had come to the Archives, which her mother had given her life to defend.

Only, even with the rain soaking everything in the open in little more than seconds, the kunoichi manning the desk had denied her request for information on the basic theory of chakra, even if it was technically for pre-genin, but could be requested by a civilian. She wanted to learn everything she could about being a ninja, about being a kunoichi like her mother, before she applied for the Academy in a few months’ time so that she could start at seven, a little later that most of her year-group, but the earliest that she could currently go, what with having missed the cut-off for this year’s group by three months to enroll at six. The kunoichi however, thought she was just a child, one with no business being there, let alone by herself, and told her to go home to go back to clinging to her mother’s skirts.

Her eyes had narrowed in displeasure, and a fair bit of anger, as she knew this woman, she had been a colleague of her mother’s, and this was far from the first time she’d visited here, so there was no way she didn’t know that her mother was dead. The woman was either being purposely callous and insensitive, or was completely unobservant.

Still, she made to leave, but going only as far as out of the woman’s eyesight.

Then she’d smothered her own chakra signature like her mother had taught her – picturing throwing a heavy cloak over the faintly humming _energy_ she’d felt pulsing under her skin for all of her memory, bundling it up completely until the faint light she imagined it gave dimmed and the quiet hum faded from her hearing. Her leaf green eyes had sparked with _something_ , a little too mean-spirited to be classified as just being merely mischievous, and she’d gone back through the rows of scrolls for civilians towards the kunoichi. That she’d managed to slip past the woman without alerting her, disgusted her, as here she was, just a pre-genin hopeful slipping past a trained chuunin, potentially able to get to information that her mother had died to protect from unauthorized hands and eyes. The disgust made any of the lingering, through rather miniscule, guilt for setting a trap for an ally _burn,_ made her plans for a trap get more elaborate. Gone was the thought of simply setting off the stink-bomb that she’d swiped from the boy who’d been hauled back to the Orphanage the day before by ANBU for pranking, placed by the idea of ‘charging’ the stink-bomb with her chakra to increase its potency and duration, before she would throw it at the feet of the chuunin after weakening the chair the woman was sitting on while she left the desk so that it fell apart and she fell right into the stink-bomb’s nauseous cloud. Before she implemented that thought, she wanted the scroll on chakra theory to study.

She disappeared into the stacks of scrolls classified at D-level, and therefore suitable for the more advanced pre-genin and genin, bypassing the simpler F-level scrolls meant for beginning pre-genin as she’d read what little there was weeks ago, wanting something a little more _comprehensive_. Even while being careful to not draw the chuunin’s attention to her, she wasn’t too worried about being caught by any other Konoha nin – after all, initiative at her age in infiltration would almost guarantee her a spot in the Academy, as it showed potential, even if some of the less creative and skilled chuunin would rather see her punished instead of rewarded.

Scanning the scrolls that she passed, she deftly picked out several that interested her and slipped them into her loose clothing, carefully hidden close to her skin but unseen in the long shorts she was wearing. Among them was a beginner’s primer on genjutsu, the one she was looking for, anatomy, and the art of substitution. Then she stumbled across an incorrectly sorted scroll – a B-level meant for no one lower than a tokubetsu jounin – for fuuinjutsu that had splatters of blood on it, nearly every inch detailing theory and seals. She didn’t think twice pocketing, knowing that the chances of her coming across this _should have been_ nothing until she was up for promotion to tokubetsu jounin herself, would have never known about it if not for the apparent streak of incompetence currently watching over the Archives.

Now once more angered at the fact that the chuunins left in the Archives were doing a less than stellar job with her mother gone, she would be coming back to prank the chuunin until the woman either shaped up, or quit. This incompetence was unacceptable, and frankly, an insult to her mother’s memory.

The girl moved back to the front with the five scrolls hidden on her person just as the scroll she’d balanced precariously on its shelf with a quiet _thump_ , followed by another, then another, and another as each falling scroll knocked another down from where they balanced half-out. Her sticky fingers had lifted an armful of scrolls and re-distributed them out of both the F and D areas liberally, intermixing the two thoroughly, planning to use the confusion caused by the current mess – and the complete overhaul of the two areas that would be needed to be done to get everything back to their proper places – to hide a few missing scrolls. She knew that by the time that it could be sure that these scrolls weren’t just misplaced, she’d be able to slip them back into place. Which considering that she felt an overhaul was desperately needed, as while she’d been wandering through the stacks, she’d discovered no less than thirteen misplaced scrolls in the wrong spots, she felt absolutely no guilt for the mess and resulting hours it would take to clean it up and re-organize.

A darker part of herself was cackling in glee, viciously enjoying with the chuunin who’d apparently noticed nothing about their former co-worker, not the friend her mother had thought them to be, and who’d screwed up her mother’s hard work in organizing the Archives with her sheer incompetence. That glee flickered in her eyes for a moment as she watched the chuunin hurry toward the slowing _thumps_ , before hurrying to remove three of the four nails holding the wooden seat to the legs of the chair and letting it just barely balance upright without lurching to the side or falling completely.

Then she hid as the chuunin returned, timing the throw of the stink-bomb to the moment the woman had her back to her as she began to sit, watching the tag begin to activate just as her behind touched the chair, before she quickly backed.

She remembered how strong the stink-bomb had been when the boy had activated one, and how large of a range it had had, and she was nearly to the entrance when the sound of the simultaneous clatter of the chair falling apart with the loud _thump_ of the chuunin following it reached her ears as the rancid smell of the stink-bomb just tickled her nose.

She fled the Archives, not noticing the nine years’ older boy perched in a tree not far from the entrance that watched as she ran off. Not seeing the fifteen-year-old tokubetsu jounin with the dark curly hair and onyx eyes looking mildly amused and deeply curious as he watched her flee, when the scent of the stink-bomb reached him. Not knowing that while she had not been afraid of catching the attention of a Konoha nin during her prank, she had not wanted the sudden interest that was coming from the at that very moment, not without planning to get it. She hadn’t wanted to stand out yet, had only acted out because that chuunin was an insult to everything her mother had stood for.

The teen wanted to follow the girl, to find out more about her, but he also wanted to find out exactly what she had done inside the Archives. Perhaps for anyone but a ninja, they would have had to choose what to pursue, but he _was_ a ninja. Quickly concentrating a minimal amount of chakra, he flashed through the hand-signs for a clone, careful to deaden the sense of smell in the clone, before ordering it to investigate the prank in the Archives as he discretely tailed the girl.

Escaping from the Archives, the girl headed for the nearby children’s park, intending to seek refuge from the rain in the scant trees while she thought of her next plan of action. While she had yet to know how to sense chakra, she still had the beginnings of a shinobi’s instincts and knew when she was being able followed; was able to discern that in this weather, that this would be no mere coincidence that someone would be going the same direction she was when she took an irregular route.

She didn’t even have a nicked kunai, having not yet stolen one from the chuunin currently in-charge at the Orphanage like many of her peers, or she would have thrown it at the presence she half-sensed behind her. Not that she knew even a rough estimate of his location, or had any skill with throwing kunai, so the effort to attack would have useless anyway. _However_ , she did know this area, and could lose her pursuer.

Lunging to the side away from the park into some smaller side streets, slipping into a miniscule gap between buildings, pausing just long enough to see the teen pass her by before stopping completely, pulling the power beneath her skin deeper as she crawled into the muddy sub-space beneath one of the buildings. Hiding while the shinobi, who she recognized as being a member of the Uchiha clan with his dark hair and onyx eyes, and his almost-pretty features for a guy, searched for her in the nearby area, peeking into the small gaps between buildings further down the street but unable to slip through with his larger frame, unable to see a head of pink hair.

After several fruitless minutes of this, he was forced to admit that he had lost a six-year-old child and backed off. He didn’t leave though, perching himself on the rooftop of one building after hiding his chakra signature, hoping that if the child believed him gone, then that she would come out on her own, thinking it was safe to leave.

After all, the fact she had managed to succeed pulling a prank on a _chuunin_ was _curious_ , to his use his cousin’s words, but that she, a civilian child, had managed to not just sense him with no training, but _evade him_ , spoke of her potential. Whether he found her or not, he would be reporting this to the Sandaime at some point, to put in the recommendation that she be trained, because it would be a waste if she remained a civilian.

Only she had expected such a tactic as that, and while she would have gladly waited him out because she was a stubborn mule, she had things to do and places to be, crawling further away through the muddy sub-space down the street away from him, to cautiously eye an empty alley a street away. She couldn’t quite sense her pursuer, something was telling her that he was still roughly where she’d last seen him, but her instincts were telling that this area was currently empty, and not trusting that it would be for long, she darted out from the sub-space.

Instead of heading back to the park, she started snaking her way through side-streets, taking apparently random left and right turns, and slipping through the small gaps between buildings when possible, to head in a very vauge sense, the opposite direction as she’d originally been heading.

She knew that if he _really_ wanted to find her, that he would find her eventually, but she had no intention of making it easy for her. Her trade-mark pink hair had made her an easy target for bullying by the other kids she’d met over the years, as the hair color was rare among civilians, rare among the citizens of Konohagakure no Sato, rare in Hi no Kuni, rare even among her father’s clan, some of who _did_ have pink hair, so she’d learned quickly how to blend in, to be inconspicuous despite her appearance. It was how even though it was pouring, there were very few children out, few covered in mud like she was, and most importantly her pink hair, that no one was sparing her a second glance. She had learned well exactly how to travel this village mostly unnoticed if she so chose, all the little shortcuts and obscure hiding places included, just to escape those bullies and their persistent badgering. That skill would come in handy, if she wanted to keep a low profile to the village ninja for just a little while longer, just until she had learned enough leave her, at least, if not equal footing with clan children her age, with a chance to catch up to them before she became a genin.

~

The rain had yet to let up in Konoha by the next day.

The six-year-old had barely come back to the Orphanage before curfew the night before, missing dinner as she had been intensely studying her smuggled scrolls in one of the caverns beneath the Hokage Monument. Some of the caverns were stocked up with supplies for a village-wide evacuation not dissimilar to the one that had happened during the Kyuubi Attack, while some of the ones deeper into the mountain held shirines to various spirits, and others were completely sealed away. Having used the scroll discussing sealing, she had finally could understand, though not break, one of the caverns with a more basic seal. She wanted to know what was in that cavern, and in the others, but preparing for the Academy was more important.

Still, the mystery and the need to _know_ drover her to go back to the caverns this day, and many more days after this surely.

Even if she did not know how to solve the puzzle of this seal, she could develop the skills that would allow her to do so. One of which was a more finely developed chakra system.

So she practiced spreading her senses out, trying to detect what was around her beyond her sight; practiced concentrating chakra to specific points on her body, like her feet.

After hours, and with her chakra barely flickering to life outside her body, she had not just figured out exactly how much chakra was necessary to hold herself up on the wall, but to a degree, how to circle it around her body systems to strengthen her body.

Her mother had told her all things had chakra, but what separated a civilian from a shinobi was the _ability_ to _use_ chakra. That while all human bodies were fragile sacks of meat, what further separated shinobi was that in learning to use chakra, developed chakra control, was that an instinctive push of chakra through the body could reinforce the body, make it capable of withstanding and giving damage that the civilian was incapable of.

Her mother had explained to her that no matter how angry she was, she had to restrain herself because of this, because while she may legally classify as a civilian in the eyes of the village, the fact was that because she possessed the ability to use chakra, she could seriously hurt a civilian; A civilian who did not and could not shuffle chakra to the point(s) of impact.

There had been something dark in her mother’s eyes as she’d explained that a shinobi child, even one who’d yet to learn how to use the chakra they had, if assaulted by a full-grown, but civilian, adult, would be the one charged with assault instead of allowing for self-defense.

and realized that her mother had been talking of him.

Still, now that her mother was gone, and she had no one to keep people from treating her like they did that boy, she realized how _important_ it was that she be able to control her chakra in such a simple, instinctive way.

That, in doing walking-up-walls, she was learning how to stretch her chakra just a little farther, use a little less but still keep doing the activity, knowing that doing such repetitive actions was teaching her body how to instinctively use the most efficient amount, and would grow her small – miniscule, just barely above the minimal that every creature had and only a smidgen more than a civilian and barely separating a civilian from a ninja at her age – reserves.

When she could no longer manipulate her chakra beyond her skin, watching as it flickered and refused to hold steady, she laid out on the cold stone floor as she rested for a moment, letting her mind work through the basic seal on the wall above her feet.

It had each of the main components required of a seal; number-point base form, grounded to an element which started the chain of hand-signs often starting similarly as a ninjutsu of that element and required to input the ‘key’, which could be some ‘code’ to fin in the provided center space like a phrase or a word, or an infusion of a keyed-in chakra. _This_ particular seal, deep in the caverns, had six-points as a base form, grounded to fire, and required some code for the key as chakra locks rejected non-authorized chakra and she’d already tested that.

With only her rudimentary knowledge, and without a more extensive explanation into the various components so that she could break it down further, she did not know how to break the seal quite yet. She was a master of letting a problem linger in the back of her mind, to work on whenever her mind was not focused on anything else. She _would_ figure this out; it just might take a bit of time while she _researched_.

A smirk twisted her lips slightly as she imagined what her next would be on that chuunin at the Archives; she wouldn’t pass the chance up to combine the two goals when she slipped into find more information about seals.

~

She was hanging upside down from a tree on the outskirts of Konoha, not far from the Hokage Monument, staying there through the chakra pumped through the soles of her feet, roughly a week after the rains had petered out as she reread a particularly interesting passage on one of her newer scrolls – specifically the line, _‘Every master of seals leaves the faintest sign in every single one of their works; it is how origin is sourced. A Kiri nin will favor a simple four-point seal for speed considering the consistent bad weather of their home village, ground in water opposed to how a Kumon in would ground the same seal in lightning, while an Iwa nin will favor a sturdy six-point seal for stability reflecting the sturdious of their home village, grounded in earth. Konoha favors five-point seals as a reflection of the influence Uzu has had since our founding, while typically grounded in earth or fire – an exception being among Uchiha clan seals, which favor six-points and are always grounded in fire.’_. If she was interrupting Jiraiya-sama’s words correctly, it would imply that the seal she was so fascinated in, was an Uchiha seal, if it originated from a Konoha.

Which added a whole new layer of intriguing, and caution that the seal needed to be handled with, because the Uchiha were notorious as being very secretive about family seals for the few that even left their compound, and those seals were just as notoriously known for being _vicious_ if tripped.

She’d heard from her mother that a run-of-the-mill seal was fairly standard, that in its activation when you survived tripping one, you’ve survived them all, but any customized seals tended to vary wildly. She had used the example of an explosive tag’s seal, which had built-in restrictions that were the standard, but that a custom tag could have even more restrictions to make it basically harmless, or remove them completely to the point that one tag was just as powerful as the standard three. She’d said that while Hyuuga clan seals tended along the line of custom explosive seals, they were still half the viciousness of a completely unrestricted, or an Uchiha clan seal version of the same thing. She had gone on to remark that it was those strong and vicious clan seals protecting the boundaries of the Uchiha compound that had kept the damage to the compound minimal despite its close proximity to the fight during the Kyuubi Attack.

The girl stilled in her perusal of the scroll as her instincts pinged faintly at another’s presence nearby.

Lifting her eyes just above her scroll as she tested out her improved ability to sense chakra, she visually looked for anyone in the nearby vicinity. This would be her first field test of her sensing ability outside of controlled situations, so she was not confident that she would sense her intruder, but considering her location, it would only a ninja that would be out here, and she didn’t expect to be able to sense them yet if they were making even the slightest intention of hiding. So she was looking with a quick flicker of her eyes from side to side, on the off-chance they didn’t bother hiding themselves as well as they could at home.

Only, she was surprised when her small wave of chakra tagged a living creature large enough to be human, despite how something was telling that there was (two) something(s) in that direction.

Then she saw a flash of the red and white fan on their back, announcing them as a member of the Uchiha.

Remembering her stalker from last time, she was less than eager to meet him again, and quickly rolled her scroll back up and slipped it into the pouch at her back that she’d pinched from the chuunin at the Orphanage. Smothering her chakra seconds before a wave of chakra could bounce of it, shuddering at the taste of ash in her mouth as it passed her, she gripped the branch she was on to hang from it by her hands while stopping the flow of chakra to her feet. Then she let go, and fell into a roll to absorb her momentum from the four-meter drop, and even if her feet still stung slightly from the impact, she didn’t let the small pain distract her.

She didn’t want to know if the Uchiha had recognized her chakra, and would start pursuing her, so she ran.

It was with a bit of a smirk, that as she passed the trees that had been surrounding the one she’d been, she let the tips of her fingers drag against them, knowing that she’d left the traps that she’d been playing around with earlier, in this area.

The Uchiha had sensed a familiar chakra in the area when he had come out to the forest with his cousin, thinking he could goad the other into a game of tag with the promise of buying him dango afterwards, and had absently sent a small wave of chakra in its direction to get a better read of it, as it was small, perhaps the size of what a civilian child or larger animal like one of the Nara deer would have.

He had been surprised when it had suddenly shrunk, becoming almost non-existent, and the pink-haired child that had pranked one of the chuunin in charge of the Archives immediately sprang to mind.

He had moved quickly, forgetting his cousin for a moment, in an attempt to get a better look at the pink-haired girl, to try and even catch her this time, if only to prove to himself that he still had the skills, only to run right into a small pit full of gooey mud.

Quickly side-stepping as he started to sink in to his ankles, not realizing he’d snapped a tripwire until a tree branch snapped back into place onto his back. He half-fell forward with the force, before a net full of rocks fell down on top of him, winding him.

His cousin, who had followed after him, through a half-beat behind with his lesser but no less impressive speed, simply stood in front of the mud pit, eyeing it, the tree branch, and the net of rocks that had been shrugged off, curiously, “It appears that a set of children’s traps have caught you, Shisui,”.

Sputtering indignantly as he stood, Shisui turned around to look at his cousin and saw the curiosity in his eyes, and actually felt a little bad for the girl as his cousin liked to take the things he found curious apart to figure out how they worked, and the girl had just made herself _curious_ , but he couldn’t let it stand that he had been beat by just _any_ child _,_ “She pranked the chuunin in charge of the Archives last week when I was in the area, then lost me in the streets a bit later. I felt her chakra just a moment ago, so I thought I would catch her and find out her _name_. I had thought she’d had potential last week, but this is twice now I’ve underestimated her.”.

A simple raise of an eyebrow was all he got from his cousin with a, “Hn,”, at once asking from more information, expressing his disbelief, and sighing in disappointment.

~

She was perched on a tree limb on the outskirts of the market, high above the heads of anyone there, when she spotted an Uchiha not much older than her but not as old as her stalker.

He was alone, and was reading a small scrap of paper intently.

Short of searching out her stalker, which was a last resort plan, or getting into the well-guarded personal files in the Hokage Tower, which would be pointless without a name as there were a _lot_ of Uchiha, not to mention impossible at her skill level, she needed information on her stalker. She was operating at a disadvantage without information, and she knew her luck would run out eventually on evading him if he got serious. If she wanted to keep evading him until she was ready to put herself forth the Academy, she needed to know at least his name so that she could find out more about him.

Slowly standing up, she wobbly walked down the tree as while she’d mastered _sticking to_ the tree, going up and down was another level of difficult that while she could do, there was the instinctive fear of falling. She still felt that sense of accomplishment for even being able to do that much, particularly as her chakra reserves were slowly growing.

Then she ran into the market, as if she were playing with friends, ducking and weaving through the crowd with soft giggles as if playing tag, before she moved directly into his path at the last second.

He caught her shoulders before she could impact with him, and she smiled guilelessly up at him, making sure to show her missing tooth to emphasize her young age and play up how this was an accident, “Arigato, Uchiha-san!”. Backing up a step as if she were about to continue on her way without a second though, she paused mid-step as if something had just occurred to her, before turning around and lightly tugging on his shirt to get his attention again, “Gomen, Uchiha-san, but do you have a cousin with short, curly black hair a few years older than you?”. He nodded shallowly, his intense eyes focused on her as they had been since he’d caught a glimpse of _pink hair_ in the crowd, and she beamed, “Nee-chan thinks he’s cute, but she’s too shy to introduce herself to him. What’s his name?”.

He was finding her pink hair very _curious_ , remembering his cousin saying that it had been a _pink-haired_ little girl that had escaped him, as well as the fact he’d never seen someone with such an odd hair color, figuring that this was her and that he would use this little _opportunity_ to find out a little about her, “Shisui. What’s her name?”.

He saw her quick blink as she thought of an answer on the fly, but she didn’t hesitate, “Takeno Ume,”. Then she looked behind him as if she saw somebody she knew, smiling widely, and looked back up at him, bowed slightly, “Arigato again, Uchiha-san!”, before she was running off into the crowd.

He watched her go, seeing why his cousin was so interested in finding her, and curious himself about her potential as she had lied directly to his face to find out his cousin’s name, but hadn’t hesitated to come up with a cover on the fly.

~

She was sitting in the budding flowers on the edge of the park, one of her newest nabbed scrolls – this one having a rudimentary diagram of the human body and its chakra system as drawn by a Hyuuga, with descriptions of the various sections’ functions – opened in front of her to study as she practiced her chakra control by manipulating it in continuous waves to the edges of the grass and back, using it to stiffen the grass in various spots.

She had read in one of her scrolls about how with a finely-tuned awareness of the chakra in all things, it would be possible to not just to pull on the chakra found in nature, but to manipulate it as an extension of herself. So far, she had figured out how to focus her chakra to a point and slice a leaf in half in her hands by visualizing it, and when she meditated, she could spread her senses a lot further through the earth, or if near a body of water, the water itself, tracking any slight disruptions in it by movement.

It was entertaining to manipulate her chakra to sharpen the blades of grass.

She was trying to extend that control to make the grass bend one way along a line to increase how fine her control was, but wasn’t having much luck yet.

Her petal pink hair had fallen in front of her face, and she was ignoring the taunts of some of the boys a year older than her about how she could keep doing that as it hid her large forehead. Besides the fact they just wanted her to engage because she appeared to be an easy target and they were bored, by responding, she would give what they wanted.

Normally she was very cooperative, but there was something about , one that she was used to ignoring because with having pink hair came the assumption that she _couldn’t_ be _strong, powerful, opinionated_ , and would just be a pretty wallflower to hang off her husband’s arm as just another ornament to his status.

She was only vaguely annoyed, as their taunts were petty and over-done; telling her that her hair looked like a wad of chewed bubble-gum, and that someone should cut it out, as well as that her forehead was big enough to write signs on. If there were some new taunts that she hadn’t heard a thousand times, she _might_ have responded, or at least fanaticized about some type of retaliation, because this was getting _old_ , but she had heard these ones for years, and they bounced right off her.

It helped that she was holding out good behavior here with the reward of that D-rank scroll of common genjutsu she’d stashed away.

Right up until when one boy dared to try some new material, saying that she must be as ugly as her mother, when her anger had her chakra rippling out and stiffening the grass beneath his feet, making them sharp as knives, but no one noticed as a blonde girl, who often played in this park and had, while not actively joining in the taunting, had never done anything stop it before, smacked him across the face. He yelped at the pain in his feet, but fell back when the blonde proceeded to push him down, no one but Sakura noticing how the grass that had been beneath his feet was dripping red, obscuring the true reason for his yelp, “Stop taunting Sakura-chan!”.

Then she turned around and marched over to Sakura, holding out a hand with a smile, “Want to play, Sakura-chan?”.

Putting away her scroll before the other girl could get a good look at it, she timidly smiled back, playing right into the role expected of her, knowing what clan she was from by the blond hair and pupil-less blue eyes, “H-hai, Yamanaka-san,”.

The blonde smiled reassuringly as she helped her stand, helping brush off the dirt stuck to her clothes.

She frowned softly as she eyed Sakura’s pink locks intently, then she smiled as removed one of the blue barrettes holding back her bangs, looking rather mischievous, “The best way to get back at bullies is to show them you’re not afraid. Show them your pretty face – they’re just jealous.”, and used it to push back her right bangs.

Sakura smiled at the other girl, thinking that she hoped that she could be friends, before giggling as she let herself be dragged off further into the flowers here.

~

Sakura was watching the younger blonde boy from the Orphanage, intrigued by how he instinctively smothered his chakra to the point it was nearly gone, roughly to the amount of a fox, before he snuck into the Hokage Tower, probably with the intent of trying to prank the older man.

She had followed him to the building next to the Tower originally, then had started climbing up the side when she realized what his intent was, hanging out just below the seal, and couldn’t help the urge to roll her eyes at how he was giving himself away to the ANBU in the room – she couldn’t sense them, but knew they would be there, even if something was telling her that there were two in the room – by snickering. She couldn’t decide whether to admire his skills to get in there, or to face-palm in sheer exasperation at his giving himself away.

Sighing softly, she brushed her chakra against the seal on the window and delicately nullified it for a moment to open the window, then walked up the last little bit of the wall and crouched on the inside ledge. Lifting a hand to wave slightly at him, she mimicked a familiar shinobi, with an upside-down u-eye smile, “Yo,”. Seeing the boy’s startle was amusing, but not the point of why she’d decided to come in, “You might want to hurry up with whatever prank you’re doing. Hokage-sama is on his way back here, and he’s not alone.”.

His eyes narrowed slightly in concentration, before widening in surprise, followed by a large grin, “You could sense them? That’s so cool!”. Then he looked suspiciously at her even as he finished his prank, edging away from her slightly out of caution, “Why are _you_ here?”.

Sakura didn’t even think of saying aloud that she’d come with half the intention of trying to steal the file Sandaime had on ‘Uchiha Shisui’, knowing that it would draw far too much attention from the ANBU that she wanted, ever.

The fact that he was asking her, when she had half-expected him to just rush out or otherwise ignore her, pleased her as it meant he wasn’t without some shinobi instincts of his own or completely obstinate. The _way_ he was asking her, how wary and tense he was, confirmed her suspicions that the bad-mouthing she’d heard, particularly these last several weeks since her arrival to the Orphanage, wasn’t the end of the mistreatment he’d suffered. She held out a hand as she re-opened the window, “I thought we could help each other, Uzumaki-san,”.

His moment of indecision was interrupted by the sound of voices in the hall, and he rushed forward, grabbing her hand as she stepped outside the window.

They didn’t know it, but the ANBU in the room reported to Sandaime after they left that the two had been in there, making the older man smile softly as he realized that while both had the potential to be ninja, but he was more pleased that someone had reached out to the boy of their own will, and very pleased that they had been a child his age.

While Sakura could keep her footing on the Tower wall, Naruto didn’t have that skill and thus half-clung to the window seal. She didn’t let go of his hand, “Uzumaki-san, would climb onto my back so I can walk us down?”.

He shook his head, voice caught in his throat in his fear of letting go and falling so far down, and her eyebrow twitched in annoyance at his refusal, at his wasting precious time, but she still didn’t let go of his hand, “Uzumaki-san, either you climb onto my back or I open the window up for you to climb back inside to the Sandaime. The choice is yours, but we can’t stay here much longer.”.

Biting his lip, he made his choice.

Twisting around, he slung one leg around the far side of her waist and clutched his arms around her shoulders, laugh a little strained as he was looking directly down, “Downward!”. She kept gripping his hand, using his trust in her to ignore her doubt of if she could get them both down without falling, face scrunching up in concentration as she focused on taking one step, then another, and another, down the Tower wall.

Their knuckles were white as both forced themselves to remain calm, instinctively understanding that if either of them panicked the other, or both of them, they would fall.

He proceeded to distract himself by trying to find out more about her, “You’re Sakura-chan, right? I’ve seen you around the Orphanage.”.

Sakura made an agreeing noise, legs shaking slightly as while she was comfortable walking up walls with chakra, it was considerably more difficult while pushing chakra through her feet in appropriate amounts to compensate for the unbalanced amount of weight, and she only had so much chakra, “What did you want me for?”.

She took a second to answer as while they were so close, she could sense his (over-)abundance of chakra, and began absently contemplating if it was possible to siphon chakra off those with larger reserves in the back of her mind, “There was a prank I wanted to do, but I wasn’t sure how to carry it out alone. I’ve seen your handiwork, and figured you would at least have some ideas. I also have a larger prank I want to carry out, but that requires not only more chakra than I have, but at least two people to pull it off successfully.”.

The idea of siphoning chakra off others was appealing, particularly if she could seal some away for later use so she could leach an unnoticeable amount off those around her, whenever it was possible, so that she would have some at all times. It would be worth investigating further, particularly as she suspected that for all the effort she could put forth by the time she became a genin, her reserves would just never be all that large, particularly in comparison to her teammates unless they were born a civilian. Until she did figure out how to siphon off chakra, she would simply settle for growing her meager reserves as large as she could and learn to use the smallest amount necessary for everything so nothing was wasted. Every skill that she learned to stretch her chakra just a little farther would be absolutely vital when her classmates would mostly be clan children, each succeeding generation enabling larger chakra reserves from the get-go, and some of them would be like Naruto, who were naturally gifted with a large abundance of chakra. While there would be a few civilian children like herself, who parents would pay their entrance into the Academy, but most of them would either do terribly and barely pass, if they even passed, or would always just be mediocre. And she _would not be mediocre_.

He snickered, “What prank? On who?”, enjoying playing pranks for the attention, and through he couldn’t see it, she smirked slightly as she knew she had just gained an ally, “To re-arrange everything exactly opposite in their home, with little ‘gifts’ left behind, and a few of their things are re-distributed across the village. The target is a particular chuunin from the Archives, Midorikawa.”. Her eyes were hard as she explained her reason, “My mother thought they were a friend, but she apparently noticed nothing about a co-worker as despite me being there _many_ times, she couldn’t recognize me and told me to run back to my mother despite knowing she had died protecting the Archives just barely two weeks before. Then they had the gall to do a less than acceptable job organizing the Archives, because the place is a mess, which is a direct insult to my mother who took such pride in her job at the Archives, and it took a week for them to screw that up.”.

Even if he couldn’t see her face, Naruto knew that kind of anger; it was an anger that wouldn’t be sated until the conclusions she wanted was achieved. Occasionally, he wanted that kind of anger himself for the way he was treated by most of the village, but he just couldn’t sustain it. It didn’t mean he didn’t understand it though.

His lips thinned as he thought of telling her that kind of anger led nowhere, but he suspected she already knew that, “I don’t want her dead, just out of the Archives. I just want to make their life difficult until they get the hint.”. He knew she could be lying, just to get him to help, but there was something in her voice, something that spoke of her attempt to honor her mother’s memory, not avenge it. Naruto imagined that if he knew who his parents had been, that he would do similar, but the most he could do, was simply live his life and hope that he did whoever they had been proud, “Alright. I’ll help.”.

He smiled into her shoulder, “Believe it!”, intuitively understanding that no matter the reason she sprouted, she had chosen to ask for his help because she was lonely just like he was and wanted a friend too.

~

After their ‘escape’ from the Hokage Tower, the two stuck together.

Because to Sakura, he was an ally; Because to Naruto, she didn’t hate him. To others, it made no sense why they even knew each other, as other than their connection of the Orphanage, and barely that as they’d hardly crossed paths more than a handful of times in the weeks she’d been there, they had appeared to not even know that the other existed. To each other, they were someone precious, someone who pushed the loneliness away.

Sakura was perched on a tree branch high above the door to the Archives, waiting for the squirrel chatter that was Naruto’s sign that their target was out of the building.

Thanks to Naruto’s presence, and his unorthodox pranks in addition to her own, the number of pranks and general mayhem introduced into the target’s life had nearly tripled, and they had begun to jump at the smallest noises, a twitch developing in their left eye. It was simply _marvelous_ to Sakura to see the chuunin quite literally on the edge of a breakdown. Through depending on her reaction to the next prank, Sakura would adjust either way their future pranks so that the chuunin didn’t _completely_ snap, just had a bit of a breakdown.

After all, her purpose with the pranks was simply to make the chuunin leave the Archives – either by resignation or reassignment – not break her for good; it wouldn’t be good if she had to visit Torture and Interrogation because she broke an asset. That was _far_ more attention than she wanted this moment in time.

She froze in place as she spotted a now-familiar head of dark hair, furthering smothering her chakra to near nothingness before giving a crow’s caw, her sign to Naruto that she had to abort.

The Uchiha, Shisui, was looking over at the Archives, possibly looking for _her_ because this was where he’d first come across her, and his eyes widened slightly once he spotted her, before he darted forwards.

Leaping down, she took off at a sprint into the crowd, darting into the crowded market and tried to disappear among all the people.

She almost thought she’d succeeded when she didn’t see him for a few long moments, and to be safe, she decided to try out of the tricks she’d recently learned from a C-rank medical ninjutsu scroll that she’d nicked from the Archives, forcing her clumsy hands through the appropriate hand signs as she channeled her chakra through the roots of her hair and into her eyes, temporarily changing both colors.

Then he caught her shoulder just after her shoulder-length hair paled to a white-like silver and her eyes became an ice-pale blue to mimic two different people she’d seen.

She jerked out of his grip, making her chin quiver with upset as her eyes filled with tears of panic and fear, before screeching, “PERVERT!”, and allowing the sudden rush of people who moved to separate them, many of the adults saying their two words to a man they thought acted inappropriately with a young girl, to wash her to the side, and out of his sight.

Only once she was about to meet up Naruto under the Fourth did she break her ninjutsu, knowing that she’d come far too close this time to being caught by her stalker.

~

The next day, as she stood in front of the Memorial Stone, tracing the lines for her mother’s name, for her father’s name, in the early morning light and lighting a stick of incense in their memory, she came across the silver-haired shinobi she’d seen in the village some days. She’d been coming here every morning with her mother practically her entire life, and the two adults had come to an understanding early on that on the days he was in the village, he would hold the silence they created until the incense burnt down to nothing and they left before he greeted his own loved ones. Since her mother had died, this was only the third time they’d crossed paths like this, and he had respected her little ritual of lighting an incense and holding a respectful silence even with the absence of her mother.

This time she broke the silence just as her incense burned down, “Shinobi-san, is it common among your ranks to stalk a child if they think they have potential?”.

She knew that she had caught him off guard when his one visible eye blinked rapidly a couple of times before he sheepishly bushed a hand through his shaggy mop of hair, “Ma, yes . . and no. Typically, if a shinobi thinks a child has potential, they don’t have to stalk a child because the child is caught and quickly identified. About once a generation, there will be one child that will be harder to catch though. Why do you want to know?”.

Sakura stood up, brushing off her dress, acting like she had done more than ask about the weather, “I seemed to have caught the attention of a shinobi. I may have evaded him thrice now as well. I wanted to know if he was an actual stalker.”, not noticing how his one eye narrowed speculatively at her, curious as nothing about what he knew of her suggested that even if she had wanted to be a kunoichi, that she would show such talent this young.

Then she left, tossing a glare towards the far side of the glade on her way out. Appearing to miss how his focus on her intensified, as the fact that she had noticed their observer _wasn’t_ a low-level skill, something that most didn’t learn until they were approaching jounin-level, typically a sign for a chuunin to become a tokubetsu jounin, or that they had a natural sensitivity to chakra that marked them as a sensor, and that was fairly rare.

 

He would also make sure to keep an eye out regarding her, and if worst came to worst, he would start the process of making her a ward of his clan.

Shisui jumped down from a tree on the far side of the glade and soon stood next to the silver-haired shinobi once she was gone, peering at the Memorial Stone curiously, “Kakashi-sempai, do you know who she was visiting?”.

Turning a dark look at the Uchiha, because Kakashi had figured out that the ‘stalker’ Sakura had been talking about was him with his presence here, and while he doubted that she would be pulled into the Uchiha clan’s power plays because of how close the younger shinobi was to the current Uchiha clan genius and heir and had seen first-hand what it meant to be a pawn in those games, there was still the fact if anyone else noticed his interest in her, she could be drawn in anyway, “Yes, but I’m not telling you Uchiha-san. Ask her yourself.”.

Plopping down next to the seated Kakashi, Shisui outright _whined_ as he glanced back at where he could almost see a pink head through the foliage, “I would, but she keeps running away! I haven’t even gotten a name out of her!”.

That made Kakashi narrow his eye at the other shinobi, not really believing such a thing as he knew that Shisui could just flash-step and catch her in seconds, but for some _unfathomable_ reason – through he had his suspicions it was because this was interesting, and like most Uchiha, tended to fixate on things but only on things that stretched their skills in some manner, in this case, probably the chase – was choosing to limit himself, “Really? You _do_ know she isn’t your cousin and a master at evasion. I’m sure a tokubetsu jounin, like yourself, could catch one civilian child.”.

Shisui pouted at that, having caught Kakashi’s insinuation and light admonishment, “Itachi already likes her for that. Thinks she’s _curious_ ,”, before shuddering lightly at the thought of Itachi ever gaining a protégé, “I don’t want to imagine what would happen if he ever taught her some of his tricks.”. He crossed his arms, pouting down at the Memorial Stone that was being resolute in keeping its secrets, “I could, but she keeps surprising me. The first time I underestimated her, and she slipped away under a building before I realized it. The second I just happened across her in the forest, and she caught me in a handful of staggered traps that while basic and a bit crude, were effective. The third time she slipped into a crowd to escape, managed to change her hair and eye color to look a bit like your bastard child with a Yamanaka, then screamed pervert after I caught her arms. Uncle gave me a _thorough_ dressing down for that when I got home last night, saying that it was a disgrace for an Uchiha to be called a pervert. I’m sure Obito is laughing at such a thing after listening to you recall the ‘amazingness’ that is Jiraiya-sama’s work so many times.”.

Kakashi chuckled, “I’m sure he is. I’m also sure that he’s finding this whole situation with you amusing. Seeing you being outsmarted by a _kid_. And a girl at that. He could tell you all about how Rin stole his heart by pounding him into the dirt. He would also say that the women to love are all better shinobi than we are.”.

Shisui laughed loudly at that, “They are! Mikoto-sama claimed her spot as Uchiha matriarch not because she married Fugaku and he’s the leader of the clan by blood-right, but because she beat him in battle. I imagine that if Obito had proposed to Rin-sempai, that between her and Mikoto-sama, we would have had a revolution on our hands.”. Then he shuddered at the thought of the girl he admired joining such a duo, “Hana-chan would have way too much fun acting on their behalf, and knocking the Uchiha collectively, down a peg or three, particularly if it meant she would get one over Itachi.”.

Kakashi shuddered with him, “Kushina-nee would be cackling right next to Mikoto-sama, making sure to spread that revolution out from among the Uchiha into the village. Minato-sensei said that he had always admired her, but it wasn’t until she had knocked him down two seconds into a spar that he realized that he loved her. He also always said that if Konoha didn’t have that law saying Hokage had to be born in the village, that she would have become Hokage instead of him. Half of the ANBU is still scared of her; they treat Naruto carefully because of that fear, and most want to at least yell at those stupid villagers who hate him for no reason of his own, because they’re genuinely scared that she’ll raise from the grave just to pound them into the ground for not doing more for her kid.”.

Shisui shook his head slightly at the Memorial Stone, having no doubt that it would have happened, had seen how between Mikoto and Kushina, the rift between the Uchiha and the village, subtle and always an undercurrent but exasperated after the Kyuubi Attack, had begun to heal before her death, that it could have healed completely if she and the Yondaime had lived, because those two women were forces of nature that took no bullshit, “Obito was right. I think that is part of why I keep letting that little girl get away. She reminds me of them, and I keep half-expecting to be beat into a pulp if I push too far. It’s also why I keep pursuing her.”, smile just a tad wistful that someone else could instigate that change, reconnect the Uchiha with the village, “It would be a pity to let her potential go to waste.”.

Kakashi was quiet for a moment, reading between the lines and catching that Shisui wanted that change and hoped that Sakura could instigate it, but didn’t say anything as Shisui stood up left, leaving him gazing mournfully at the Stone and all the missed opportunities.

Shisui left, intending to follow through on some information he thought might relate to the girl he had been trying to catch for weeks now. Considering her unique hair color and that he had seen a merchant or two with the same hair color, he thought that she might be related to the primarily-merchant Haruno clan.

Only by the time the sun had reached its zenith, and he’d managed to find nineteen of the thirty members of the clan within Konoha at this moment, and that every single one of them said that there was no child meeting her description in their clan. Considering that eight of the remaining clan members were children, one a chuunin out on a mission, and the other two out on a long-term trading contract, Shisui was inclined to think that this information might have been a dead end. He would put a few more hours into this lead to make sure he wasn’t missing something or wasn’t asking the right questions, but he didn’t have high hopes that he would find out.

If there was any truth in the matter though, he doubted that he would find something out in the next couple of hours if the whole clan was in on not acknowledging a child as one of their own. It wasn’t like such a thing as an entire clan ignoring a clan member by blood was impossible, as he had heard about a bastard or two of great-great-uncle Madara running around the Fire Country, whose only interaction with their clan was the sharingan being sealed away before it could form.

**~**

**A/N: I’d figured I’d outright say something, because while I could lightly imply, and maybe implicitly state sometime in the next couple of chapters, it might be a while, and this is a rather major point in my world-building here in _Master of Crows_.**

**In my head-canon, considering that both Naruto and Iruka both were long-reigning pranksters, to the considerable annoyance of the Council, but with no real punishments, even to Naruto, I figured that therefore, pranking was considered an acceptable, if not encouraged, behavior. Particularly as most of the admonishments that seemed to be given, were along the line of 1 st stage of the Chuunin Exam, of a ‘don’t get caught by being so bluntly obvious it was you’. Mostly because successful pranks would not only build trap-setting abilities, but give a wide range of inventive and innovative trap ideas for use in the field later in their career.**


	2. Low-Hanging Clouds and Kits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where a stalker finds his target. Where lonely children become friends. A terrible misadventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still don’t own Naruto.  
> Unbetaed
> 
> I have the next couple of chapters written, and the first chapter ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, so I thought I would post and resolve that. Don’t get used it though; when I catch up to the last chapter I have written now, it’ll probably be a chapter a month at best.

It was about a month after his failed attempt to find anything about the pink-haired little girl he’d been trying to identify, having spent the last three weeks of that on a mission, that an older woman approached him in the early morning hours. As he browsed absently for some dango to bribe his cousin to help him find the girl finally, she told him that the child he had been inquiring after was ‘Haruno Sakura’, the daughter of the clan head’s late son and his kunoichi, through both mother and daughter had been disowned from the clan after the father’s death by their patriarch who had never approved of him taking an ‘unpure’ kunoichi for the next clan matriarch.

From there, he was able to get into public records to find that her father had died in the Kyuubi Attack while protecting some of the elderly in the evacuation, and that her mother had recently been killed in the line of duty after having been grounded to the village from a crippling wound received during the same attack that had taken her husband. Now aware that she was a clan-less orphan with kunoichi heritage, which explained a fair bit about her skill level as well as telling him where she would have been placed after her mother’s death, he went to the Orphanage with the full intention of finding out more about her and seeing if she even wanted to _be_ a kunoichi.

If she did want to, he would deliver his recommendation to the Sandaime that she be enrolled into the Academy for the next year’s class, and his previous report about her potential – through the vague amusement he’d gotten from Sandaime describing her still made little sense – would help her as there were few civilian-raised pre-genin that had such recommendations.

Shisui walked into the Orphanage and kept one of his more serious faces on as he spoke to the young chuunin in charge there at this moment, “Is Haruno Sakura here?”. The chuunin looked to be a bit frazzled as children around them, trying to keep an eye on all of them at all times, having been warned many times about the mischief they could get up to if just one escaped out of sight for just a moment, “She’s not here right now, Uchiha-san.”, before a mall blonde boy collided with Shisui’s legs, “Are you Sakura-chan’s stalker?!”, an almost fierce look on his face.

A look that crossed the line into being comical when compared to the face Shisui made at being, once again, referred to as a stalker.

The kid looked almost like he was trying to decide if he wanted his help or wanted to bite him, but didn’t let go of his leg despite how the chuunin was sputtering and red in embarrassment, trying to pull him off Shisui’s leg, “Uzumaki! Let go right this instance!”.

The blonde bit at the chuunin’s hand when it tugged too hard on his shirt, and was almost smacked for the action, but Shisui caught the hand, giving the chuunin a displeased look out of the corner of his red-tinted eye as he squeezed tighter and tighter until he could hear the bones began to grind together, then let go as if nothing had happened, looking curiously at the blonde, “You know Sakura-chan?”.

The kid nodded quickly, one arm flailing around eagerly for his gestures, “She’s my best friend! We’ve been pulling pranks together for weeks! Only when we were staking out her favorite target yesterday, she left without saying why we had aborted another prank. Then she didn’t come in for curfew!”.

Shisui was quick to learn that turning up for curfew was a very big deal for the kids of the Orphanage. He could that for all the mayhem and disorder in running this orphanage, that the kids took care of their own, and at the blonde’s statement, all the other kids in the room were coming closer, expressing concern; “Sakura-chan must be in trouble!” “No one misses curfew if they can!” “Sakura-chan needs help shinobi-san!”. It was quickly apparent that the kids all believed that curfew was vital to their safety, and that missing curfew was the equivalent of a team on a mission running over a week late for a shinobi – clearly worrisome.

The chuunin didn’t share their concern, even if he did admit to some worry, “Sakura-chan has never caused any trouble, and it is most unlike her to be gone for so long. I already asked my friends in the village to at least keep an eye out for her, but there is no need for a search party yet. She probably is just lost on the other side of the village and one of the merchants took her in for the night. I was told that she did have some distant family among them.”.

Shisui shared the blonde’s attitude, as the personality of the girl he’d been chasing after wouldn’t worry a friend like the other clearly was.

Pulling the kid off his leg onto his hip, he let the blonde chatter about Sakura as he started a grid search of Konoha.

He had just wanted to talk to her to see if she even _wanted_ to be a kunoichi, but now he felt obligated to make sure she as even alive. With how Itachi, for all his younger cousin’s skill and unrivaled genius, was a pacifist, and would have likely been happy being a civilian, he had not wanted to force Sakura into doing something she had no want of being, but listening to the blonde chatter, he was quickly finding that she had very much wanted to be a kunoichi, but hadn’t wanted attention drawn to her burgeoning skill just yet. The blonde told him all about how she had been reading as many scrolls as she could to be as close as she could be to being on equal footing with the clan kids when she planned to enter the Academy the next year.

Shisui was finding out a lot about Sakura as he systematically searched the village proper, fully aware that she _had_ managed to hide from him before, but he had the distinct feeling that she wasn’t hiding now. The longer he searched, the more his instincts were screaming that something was wrong.

After he had searched all the areas she could have gotten to, and was allowed in – as most of the shinobi neighborhoods were, while not quite off-limits to civilians, were restricted to those allowed, not to mention that those areas were considerably more dangerous to children, even clan children beyond their respective compounds, and that she had no reason to be there in the first place.

Letting the blonde down after he’d nearly completed a whole circuit of the village, Shisui frowned, “Head back to the Orphanage, Uzumaki-kun, I’ll bring Sakura-chan when I find her.”, before he darted off to the dango stall Itachi liked to pretend wasn’t his favorite.

He knew the serious look on his face as he snatched the dango out of his cousin’s hand was the only reason why he wasn’t getting a kunai to the hand (again) for taking his cousin’s sweets _again_ , “Itachi, I need your help.”.

Itachi raised an eyebrow as he ate another ball of his dango from the stick back in his hand, silently asking for details, “That girl I’ve been trying to find, I found out her name, Haruno Sakura. Apparently, she and her mother were disowned by her father’s clan after her father died in the Kyuubi Attack, and her mother died nearly two months ago in the line of duty, so I tracked her to the Orphanage, to talk with her. Only, she missed curfew last night, and the kids there are acting like we do when a comrade is over a week late from a mission. I did a grid search of Konoha proper already, but I still can’t find her.”.

Shisui tried to not fidget in his anxiety, as the kids had gotten him worried over Sakura and no one had seen her in nearly a day from what he’d gathered, shifting restlessly as his cousin frowned faintly, “You do not think she is hiding from you again? She had proven to be fairly adept at that.”.

He shook his head, “No. Her friend said she aborted their prank yesterday around the Archives, and he didn’t see her afterwards. Even the chuunin in charge of the Orphanage this month was a little worried about her absence, just he thought she was with some extended family for the night. But I’ve been talking to that clan; they won’t even acknowledge her. One woman had to pass information to me on the sly for me to even get her name.”, continuing to shift restlessly, “When I was doing that grid search, I scanned for her chakra. She’s smothered it before, but not completely, and I couldn’t find any trace of her in the village at all.”.

Itachi finished his dango, frowning as he couldn’t help comparing her to his little brother, as they were roughly the same age, and thinking over the what-ifs of this was Sasuke missing, “You said the last place she was seen, was the Archives? Did you check the area for any sign of her?”.

Then he followed his cousin as he took off at a fast walk in that direction, “She was about to pull a prank on a chuunin there, when she aborted it rather suddenly. Uzumaki-san said that she also didn’t show up for the usual meeting after an aborted prank, but had thought she was still evading _me_ so he hadn’t been worried, because she’d done so before. Only I didn’t see her; wasn’t even in the area.”, watching as Shisui’s face tightened, “I didn’t check the area yet. Uzumaki-san was with me, and I didn’t want to worry him if I found something.”, clearly taking this more personally than if she’d been just another villager.

Only, after they had searched the area, they found little to no sign she’d been there recently.

Itachi watched his older cousin’s face stiffen, becoming a coolly indifferent mask to hide his growing anxiety, before he spoke, “I think we need to report this to Sandaime-sama.”.

He watched as Shisui slipped in through the window from behind the Sandaime, then knelt like he was delivering a mission report. He watched as Sandaime’s face smoothed out from the smile he’d started to greet them with, “Shisui-kun, Itachi-kun, what brings you to me?”, to a carefully neutral mask.

Shisui didn’t look up as he spoke, “I believe the girl I’ve been trying to catch is missing. I finally found out her name: Haruno Sakura; and tracked her to the Orphanage. Only to find that she missed last night’s curfew, and she was last seen yesterday afternoon after abruptly aborting a prank on a chuunin at the Archives. I searched the village for any trace of her chakra, and found nothing. We searched the area around the Archives, and found nothing.”.

Upon hearing Shisui’s report, Sandaime was a bit worried himself, being not just a chronic worry-ier, but a father and new grandfather, “I suspected you were chasing Sakura-chan. I knew her mother, Ren-chan, well. That woman was smart, could keep up with Shukaku without much trouble. Last I remember, they were 273-146-112 in Shukaku’s favor in their shogi games.”, a faintly guilty look coming to his face, “Had a fantastic head for administrative tasks. After she was crippled in the Kyuubi Attack and she could no longer do field work, I assigned her a permanent rotation at the Archives. She died stopping several Kumo shinobi from making off with any of the intel hidden there, while the rest went to the Hyuuga compound and tried to kidnap Hinata-chan. Sakura-chan would be incredibly defensive of the place, particularly as her mother had just worked her way up to S-level clearance, as evident by the complaints I’ve been getting about the general mayhem happening there for the last month.”.

He felt guilty over Ren’s death, and knew her daughter would do no less than give her life to protect her mother’s sacrifice, and feared she had tried to do exactly that, “Shisui-kun, Itachi-kun, I’m assigning you a D-rank mission to find Haruno Sakura and bring her back to me. Shisui-kun, you are squad leader. Get Inuzuka Hana to track her. Now go,”.

Sandaime had known that the Haruno clan would not take her, but her father’s brother might. Only the man and his wife were out on a long-term circuit as a pair of merchants, as par his request to get a read on the political climate of the other five great villages and to imbed several people into the other Hidden Villages in this still unstable political arena. That circuit was only a third complete, so they would not be back in the village for at least another six months if all went well and all trading was pushed forward without any delays. Which was unlikely considering that not two days before, he’d gotten word from her uncle that they were delayed in Suna until the rains cleared up.

However, his wayward older son was already on his way back to the village from his time as a ‘Guardian of Fire’ after word of Ren’s death, and he had plans to see if Asuma would be amicable to hosting her until her aunt and uncle returned. Raising her for a while would be good for both of them; they both needed a stronger connection to the village as only his protection shielded Asuma from the Council’s doubts about his continued loyalty and Sakura had few things holding her to the village with her mother dead and ostracized from her clan, and she was vulnerable to some traitor playing on that. If they were seen bonding, and Asuma assimilated back into village life without issue, the Council’s doubts would be quieted and he would feel less like he was failing Ren.

Shisui quickly left with Itachi once they were dismissed, leaping back out the window and in the direction of the Inuzuka compound.

While they ran, Shisui addressed his cousin, “I’ll get Hana and explain our mission to her. Go get anything you think we might need, and meet us at the Archives in ten minutes. We have no idea what we’re walking into; if she’s simply in the forest, taken, or ran off.”. Itachi nodded, before diverting off towards the Uchiha compound, to retrieve some of his supplies, leaving Shisui to continue towards the Inuzuka compound.

Coming to a stop momentarily at the entrance to change his pace to something closer to a walk, he nodded politely to the Inuzuka he passed them before he came across Hana, her mother Tsume, and their dogs, Kuromaru, and the Haimaru Brothers, “Hana-chan, we have a mission.”.

The fourteen-year-old kunoichi smiled as she straightened her long brown hair in its ponytail, the two locks of hair framing her face drawing attention to how her large black eyes were bright, “What type of mission Shisui-kun?”. Shisui eyed her usual outfit for a moment; the light brown leggings and jacket with the white fur around the collar over a black netted shirt and the grey sash around her waist, “A retrieval mission. One of the kids from the Orphanage is missing, and no one’s seen her since yesterday. Sandaime ranked it a D, but he did mention that her mother had died defending the Archives from those Kumo in here a couple of months ago, and that was where she was last seen. We don’t know what we’re walking into, so you should bring a fair bit of your medical supplies with you, just in case.”, taking particular note of the new large pouches around the back of her waist. She nodded, “So I’m the tracker as well as the medic. Who else is coming with, if anyone?”, petting at the half-grown grey puppy at her side, the other two grey canines watching him closely with their amber-brown-on-black eyes.

Shisui got the feeling that like all Inuzuka hounds, they knew more than they revealed, and he wouldn’t be surprised that knew some of what he hadn’t said already and were simply waiting for him to come out with it, “Itachi, he’s meeting us at the Archives.”.

She bowed her head to her mother, “Excuse me Kaa-san,”, before running off with the three dogs at her heels, leaving Shisui with the older woman and her wolf-like dog.

The woman had the wild dark brown hair, vertical slit-like pupils of her dark eyes, elongated canine teeth and nails, and red fang kumadori-style tattoos as typical of her clan, with dark purple lipstick and dressed in the standard outfit of a tokubetsu jounin, with a chuunin flak jacket and black shirt and leggings underneath with her sleeves rolled up and bandages around her lower legs above her sandals. She smiled widely at him, her eyes sharp as her teeth, “Uchiha-san, Hana better come home.”, her warning unstated but very clear, before turning that smile to the side, softer now, “Hana! Come on, time is of the essence in a retrieval like this.”.

Hana made a huffy annoyed sound while she adjusted the bag on her back, the three dogs moving around her legs, “I know Kaa-san.”, before looking at Shisui, “Short of a month-long mission in enemy territory, I should be ready.”.

Shisui nodded politely at Tsume, just as much an acknowledgement of her warning as taking her leave, before making an abrupt exit with Hana and the three Haimaru brothers towards the Archives.

From there, after they met up with Itachi, it did not take long for Hana’s dogs to find Sakura’s scent, with three foreign male scents. Hana herself could smell Sakura’s fear lingering there, before following the four scents out of the village, in the direction of the Land of Lightning.

~ _One Day Earlier_

Even as she was about to jump down from her current perch to the entrance of the Archives, having heard Naruto’s sparrow’s song as his signal that it was all clear, Sakura was thinking about how to get one particular B-rank scroll detailing chakra nature out while she was inside of the Archives. Only, her shinobi instincts, heightened from evading her stalker so many times in the last two months, screamed that there are people approaching. Going still, she spread out her senses, sending out a thin pulse of chakra to get a better read on who those people were.

She had been practicing working on sensing chakra, particularly after coming across an intriguing passage a month ago about how the Nidaime had not been a natural sensor type, but had refined his skills in that direction early on to be second only to a trained natural sensor, but knew she wasn’t particularly sensitive yet – not to the degree of being able to pinpoint where somebody was in her meager range, just that there _was_ someone. She wasn’t able to sense a jounin masking their chakra, or an ANBU, though she had her suspicions that the latter were watching over Naruto – he looked far too much like the deceased Yondaime to be a mere coincidence – and should be in the area. The way her instincts were prickling through, told her that these were not friendlies.

Quickly giving a crow’s caw to get Naruto away from there, not wanting to risk her only friend, even as she wondered why, if these were enemy shinobi, they hadn’t been intercepted by ANBU.

Sakura frowned at how not only how their chakra was masked nearly from her senses, but at how they were moving too fast for the squirrel-sized chakra her senses did pick up. The _way_ they were moving, darting from each and every spot she’d already marked as being out of the line of sight for passing Konoha shinobi and out of line of sight for the civilians in this area, said they were trying to evade detection. There was no doubt in her mind that these were enemy shinobi, and had to be stopped.

Slipping into a nearby shadow, she smothered her chakra as small as she could make it go, even as she tried to sense out any friendly shinobi that she could get to or alert before she was stopped, when they came out of the shadow long enough to cross between two nearby buildings, to show her that they were three Kumo shinobi, evident in their differently styled dress and their hitai-ate.

Her eyes sharpened, as she could figure out that they were in this part of the Village, instead of the Hokage Tower, which held the truly sensitive information, or the Hyuuga compound, they had come for another attempt at the Archives. Sakura had absolutely _no_ confidence in the chuunin currently guarding the Archives with her mother gone, as she’d been pranking them for more-or-less this exact reason, and she wouldn’t see her mother’s sacrifice become null and void in their failure. She simply couldn’t; unable to sense any nearby shinobi, and hoping that she could snare an ANBU’s attention, she would settle for drawing the three Kumo shinobi’s attention and force them to abort this mission, even if it meant her death.

Sakura flared her chakra some, almost as if it escaped her control in fear and panic, unknowingly imbedding that fear and panic into the stone beneath her feet with her chakra, immediately drawing their attention, all the while hoping that it would be enough to draw some ANBU’s attention.

Crouching as she forced herself into a small niche in the wall behind her to move herself out of an easy line of fire, letting her chakra express more panic and fear than she actually felt as it spiked a little more so that she would appear to be no real threat but possibly valuable. She wanted them to get close, so she could cause just enough of a commotion that they would be forced away or risk drawing ANBU attention, if she hadn’t alerted them already.

Her fear became very real when a kunai embedded into the wall next to her head, and she tried to push herself further into the niche as the three men landed on the perch next to her.

The one on the left, a man with sickly pale skin and slicked back brown hair, scowled at the one in the middle, “You missed, Kaname, she’s still alive.”, who was darker-skinned with short-cropped dark hair, who glared back, “Shut up Sousuke, I’ll finish her.”.

Sakura felt buried strength surge forward at such a clear dismissal, eyes flashing angrily to dart forward and pull the kunai free from the wall. She knew next to nothing about handling a kunai, but she wouldn’t die so easily, sinking down into a crouch and leaping toward Sousuke’s leg, shoving the kunai into Kaname’s thigh.

Kaname bit out a curse, before snarling and reaching for her, but she had already scaled Sousuke’s back until her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck, where she bit at his ear. Kaname pulled her head back by her hair, “Look, you little bitch-”, squeezing her jaw hard enough for the bone to creak until she let go of Sousuke’s ear, “Kaname,”. He narrowed his eyes at the third man, who had bronze skin and spiky blonde skin, “What,”, who was examining her, “She could be useful. If she spotted us, she could know enough about Konoha to guide any future attempts into the village, possibly even help us retrieve a Hyuuga. Our contact in the Archives could confirm any information she gives us, and if she lies, then we kill her.”.

Kaname looked skeptical, fingering a kunai while he held her off the ground by her shoulder-length pink hair, “I doubt she could be more than marginally useful. She probably doesn’t know all that much.”. Sakura struggled; clawing at the arm holding her up by her hair, kicking at anything of him she could reach, just overall putting up as much of a fight as she thought she could get away with, knowing that if she screamed though, she was as good as dead before anyone heard.

Sousuke held his ear with a bit of a glare, “Either we kill her or we don’t, either way Tatsuya, we need to be meeting out contact, retrieving that information, and be going on our way before we’re noticed. The longer we take, the likelier we’re to be noticed.”.

The third man, Tatsuya, nodded, “Sousuke, bind that wound, then meet our contact. You have ten minutes before we leave.”.

Sousuke nodded, having already pulled the kunai from his leg and binding his leg with bandages from one of his pouches, before he was not down in front of the Archives, but inside.

Sakura, hearing that they had a contact inside the Archives, mentally flipped through all the ninja assigned there, trying to identify anyone that she could conceive being a traitor. Off the top of her head, there were three chuunin she could think of that were less than (fanatically) dedicated to the Archives like her mother had been, but had high enough clearance to have access to anything worth stealing, and whose incompetence might excuse a missing scroll as simply misplaced temporarily.

She knew she needed to live to be able to pass this information along, so someone could route out their traitor.

She didn’t get the opportunity to try and to make a run for it before Sousuke returned, and before she could try to resist further, Tatsuya had bound her hands together behind her back, then held a kunai to her neck, “You’re going to be quiet and not fight, or I’ll decide that you’re not worth the trouble to keep alive. Understand?”.

Her eyes were wide in fear as when she roughly swallowed, the kunai nicked her throat and a thick drop of blood beaded up underneath the sharp edge, before she shallowly nodded.

Tatsuya slung her over his shoulder like a sack of rice, then they took off, running away from Konoha.

Sousuke took point, with Kaname at the rear, glaring at her suspiciously.

When their speed made her pink locks flutter into her face, sticking to her lips, she sucked on the ends before using the jerky motion her body was being carried with to hide how she tore out a few strands every little bit to leave a faint trail.

Once they were several hours away, Tatsuya attached a lead to her bound hands, and ‘let’ her walk between him and Kaname, more-or-less dragging her behind them as the hours dragged on and she became physically exhausted, mind still spinning lightning fast trying to find a way to get away before they crossed the border of Fire Country because she knew the moment that they did, the chances of her escaping went down exponentially with every meter.

They had been moving in a northeastern direction, beginning to approach the border after nearly a day, when she stumbled and sunk to her knees, legs physically unable to hold her own weight anymore. She had been straining her senses, hoping that she would find pursuers from Konoha before they did reach the border, and would have cried in relief then and there if it wouldn’t have alerted the Kumo shinobi of the three quickly approaching chakra signatures she sensed coming from behind them.

Sakura ignored how Kaname physically picked her up and threw her forward, letting her feet only hold her for a few moments before her legs gave out again, as she focused all her attention on those three signatures, recognizing one for sure, and a second she thought she knew as well.

Faking a faint, completely collapsing and body dead weight but limbs unresisting of any manipulation as Tatsuya tried to tug her forward with a quiet curse, Sakura tried to send out a pulse of chakra towards her stalker, unsure of whether it made it made it to him, but hoping it got through.

~

The three Haimaru brothers had quickly picked up Sakura’s faint scent trail in a building overlooking the Archives, through the scent quickly faded to near nothing without contact with anything but he person holding her, and they were forced to instead to track the three men that had been there with Sakura. As they followed it out of the village into the surrounding forest to the northeast, Itachi’s sharp eyes had caught a glimpse of strands of pink hair being left every thirty meters or so.

Shisui’s eyes had taken on a bright red tint at that, proud that the little girl was managing to leave them a trail, but growing increasingly angry at the act that she’d been taken from the middle of the village without anyone noticing. Heads would be rolling if he had his way over the lax security, particularly after Kumo’s failed attempt not even two months before which had orphaned Sakura already. It made him think there was a traitor in their midst. He would certainly be having a conversation with his uncle Fugaku about stepping up the Konoha Police patrols, because clearly somebody was slacking and he had his suspicions who.

They were nearly to the border when their outstretched senses alerted them to four bodies. With a mere glance at Itachi from Shisui, the other Uchiha with his better than average chakra control slowly expanded a pulse through the ground towards them. It was faint, nearly un-noticeable with how weak and exhausted it was, but he felt Sakura’s pulse.

Itachi’s nod and signal to the right ahead of them, with a quick hand-sign in Konoha shinobi shorthand for twenty meters, was all Shisui needed to release his built-up chakra for what was already being recognized as his signature move, the shunshin no jutsu. He had been a little young to have learned the hiraishin as a member of the Yondaime’s Guard Platoon, but he had seen the Yellow Flash in action the night of the Kyuubi Attack, and it had inspired him. As such, he had nearly perfected the shunshin no justsu, earning him the moniker of Shunshin no Shisui, and as such immediately faded from sight without a trace.

He reappeared directly in front of Sakura, scooping her up in his arms and leaping out of the fray as Hana and Itachi converged on the three enemy shinobi in a pincer movement.

Sakura watched in awe as the three Kumo shinobi were quickly disabled, bound and gagged with their weapons removed from their person then knocked out for further measure, before Shisui spoke with an awkward scratch of his head, “Ne, Blossom-chan? This a hell of a way to meet you face-to-face, you little escape artist, is it not?”.

Her eyes narrowed, face screwing up angrily, before she reached up to bring her fist down on his head with considerable force, “You stalker!”. As he blinked the stars from his eyes, surprised at how hard she’d managed to hit him, tears budded up in her eyes and her chin wobbled before she quietly began to cry from all the stress and fear of her kidnapping, “Y-you stalker, I’m glad you noticed I was gone. No one else would have, because no one would have believed Naruto . . !”.

Shisui gave panicked looks to both Itachi and Hana, having no idea what to do with a crying child, before he held her out to his cousin, hoping Itachi would know what to do with her, having a younger sibling her age of his own.

Itachi automatically caught her, and not missing a beat, wrapped her arms around his neck and started to cry into his shoulder, slumping down into his arms, exhausted. He awkwardly hoisted Sakura onto his hip, like he would Sasuke sometimes, though not so much anymore as his brother had his pride, not sure on how to properly carry an unrelated younger girl.

As she quickly succumbed to sleep after her tiring day, he was drawn to study the way teardrops clung to the petal pink lashes closed over viridian green eyes and porcelain cheeks. The young teen thought that she looked like a china doll his mother had once admired in a shop when she'd been pregnant with his younger brother, being so small and fragile-looking, elegant and beautiful with her coloring and form. Yet she was far hardier than any gave her credit for when she fell from her shelf and remained in one piece.

Once Sakura was away from Shisui, Hana smacked the year older teen, “You baka!”, and quietly began to admonish him for treating the traumatized younger girl like a sack of rice. He sheepishly scratched at the curls on the back of his head, letting the girl lecture him as he wasn’t very proud of his behavior either.

After Hana had run out of steam, Shisui opened a spare scroll and sealed the unconscious bodies of the three Kumo shinobi inside before beginning the trek back to Konoha with the other two soon on his heels.

They were nearly back to Konoha when Sakura groggily woke up on Itachi’s back, blurrily looking at the dark blue high collar shirt in front of her face as his short ponytail of silky ebony tickled her cheek where it lay on his shoulder.

Before vague memories of being rescued could resurface, Sakura abruptly jerked her head forward to slam her only slightly large forehead into the back of his head in an attempt to stun him. They both groaned in pain, before Sakura used the small slackening of his grip on the backs of her knees to try and detach herself from him then flee.

She nearly managed to fall off his back while both of their heads throbbed in pain back.

Shisui’s cackles and breathless, “She _head-butted_ you . . !”, stirred the right memory.

Sakura was horrified, going rigid as all the color fled from her face, “Gomen! I didn’t . . ”.

She felt more than heard Itachi’s sigh, Sakura-san, I am fine. There’s no offense to be taken for showing good instincts.”.

Shisui continued to laugh, “Sakura-chan, that was brilliant!”, until Hana smacked him after seeing that the girl had started to go bright red, “That’s enough Shisui! You’re embarrassing her.”. He pouted for a second, but neither of the other two looked like they cared one iota so he dropped the pout with a muttered, “Heartless, that’s what you two are.”.

Hana rolled her eyes at the immature teen, then smiled at Sakura, whose cheeks had just turned nearly back to their normal color, “Sakura-chan, I’m Inuzuka Hana. It’s nice to finally meet the person Shisui has been muttering about constantly for the last two months.”.

Sakura blushed a bit at the praise, turning her cheeks a pale pink, unable to meet the other girl’s eyes in her shyness. It wasn’t exactly a common occurrence for someone to praise her, as even her mother had been fonder of saying that she was proud of her than any praise. Sakura gave a small smile to Hana, “It’s nice to find my stalker isn’t some creep.”, mischief sparking in her eyes.

Hana’s barking laugh filled the space around them, “Nice one Sakura-chan!”, as Shisui pouted at the two girls, “Is it pick on Shisui’ day or something?”.

Itachi gave his cousin a deadpan look, raised an eyebrow then gave a short nod, “Hn,”.

Shisui gaped at his cousin, before looking between him and the snickering Hana, both understanding the untranslated Uchiha-nese as ‘Yes, it’s marked on our calendars’, “Did you hear that?! Itachi-chan made a joke!”.

Itachi’s gaze became icy at Shisui’s slip into a nickname that only his mother could call him, and that he protested deeply whenever there was an audience, having mostly given up on getting him to stop completely, his gaze being nearly deadly without flickers of red in his dark eyes when Hana snickered, “Itachi-chan?”. For calling him _that_ in range of Hana’s hearing, particularly as he’d managed to keep it from her for five years, Shisui would be soon suffering _quite_ severely.

Sensing the impending doom only held back by the fact that Sakura was still attached to Itachi, and that he had until they returned to Sandaime before Itachi would act, Shisui quickly widened his strides to ‘scout on ahead’. They all knew that he was all but running away from Itachi though, what with the low-level KI Itachi was radiating in his direction.

Even with her hands shaking a little from being in range of the KI, Sakura could see why the older boy might be called ‘-chan’ with his borderline _pretty_ looks, though she wasn’t so suicidal to say so to his face.

Sakura looked around her, thinking it was best to change the conversation to something else before Shisui said something bordering on suicidal, when her eyes fell upon the Haimaru brothers.

Moving around Konoha as much as she had, she’d seen her fair share of ninken, messenger hawks, and summons throughout the village, but the fact was that while the Inuzuka clan all had ninken, they were the only animals she’d seen with black sclera. Looking ack at Hana, she saw her chance to ask without drawing too much attention to her interest, “I know that all Inuzuka have a ninken, but why are they only ones to have ninken with lack instead of white for their eyes?”.

The kunoichi blinked for a moment at the question, as even shinobi, as nosy as they were as a standard for their profession, didn’t often ask directly about such a thing; it had been just another thing to separate an Inuzuka ninken from other ninken, like those of the Hatake, for so long that most didn’t think to ask. Then she smiled as she looked over the Haimaru brothers, pleased to be able to tell some of their clan’s history to somebody beyond her clan again, “That would be because they are not dogs like one would think. In the time of the Rikudou Sennin, the monomoke themselves less and less interacted often with us humans. We of the Inuzuka lived near the House of the West, where the leader of the inugami lived. As such, we were called spirit-touched, particularly when occasionally, a clan member would mate with a inugami and a hanyou would be introduced into the family line. In exchange for allowing our clan to continue to exist in both worlds, the daiyoukai in charge of the Inugami made us a deal: when an inugami went rogue, we would be the ones to hunt them down and put them down,” one of which, Haiharu by the darker streak down his spine, rubbed against her thigh, “We did so, but as time went on, the inugami blood in our line got thinner, and it got harder to hunt down rogue inugami. One clan member, whose blood was more inugami than we’d had since the hanyou, choose to remain in his dog form then to assist his family, and from him, do our ninken descend from. That is why they are smarter and larger than even other ninken. It was after the Inugami lord was killed by a ryuuji lord, that we left the area and eventually came here shortly after the founding of Konoha.”.

Sakura looked at Itachi, seeking some sign from him if this was true or some elaborate lie, because considering some of the widespread lore of the Rikudou Sennin and Kaguya, and of the numerous summons, such history would not be hard to see as true. He gave a small inclination of his head, having been the other person outside the clan Hana had told this to, and having some clan lore of his own involving a tengu so he did not doubt that she spoke the truth.

Sakura was quiet the remaining time of their return to Konoha, digesting what Hana had told her and trying to assimilate such lore into what she already knew of the world. The fact that this could be _true_ , made those stories of the Rikudou Sennin, of Kaguya, seem more plausible.

It also made her inner researcher run in circles, because now she needed to find as much lore as she could of those two, of about the Warring States period and earlier. A ninja’s life depended not on their strength, but the depth of their knowledge. An ignorant ninja was a dead ninja, as a knowledgeable ninja could figure out a weakness for an enemy from the wealth of information they knew. The chances that her life would be dependent on such knowledge was slim, but it was always better to be prepared.

It also reminded her that at some point in the years to come, before she graduated from the Academy, she needed to get her hands on a Bingo Book. There were older ones kept in the Archives, in the S-rank section, and she needed to think of a plan to get her hands on at least one of those. One of those would expand her information base, and help her prepare for the sorts of ninja she could come across by giving her the most dangerous of possible opponents from an era of war.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the welcome sight of the Front Gates of Konoha back-dropped by the Hokage Monument.

Against her will, tears budded in her eyes at the sight. She hadn’t thought it coherently, but it had been spinning in the back of her mind since she was dragged out of Konoha none-the-less: that she would never see Konoha again.

Shisui smiled at her as he widely gestured at the gate, “We’re home Sakura-chan,”, before the two chuunin there waved at them in greeting.

Shisui approached them ahead of the rest of their small group, and waited there for them.

One of the chuunin, an Inuzuka by the red fangs on his cheeks and the large brown dog at his side, smiled at Hana, “Hana-chan,”, then addressed each of the Haimaru brothers, “Hainatsu, Haiharu, Haikaede, welcome home,” looking at each as he said their names. She smiled back, “It’s good to be home, Masaki-san, Haru,”, before he let them pass.

Back in the village, and feeling once more strong enough to walk, Sakura tapped Itachi’s cheek to get his attention before making a gesture pointing down. He nodded, and stopped, bending so that she could climb down and walk beside them on her own.

Once she was on the ground, the three Haimaru brothers immediately started sniffing at her. Childishly giggling when one, Hainatsu by the fact his coat was a lighter grey with a pale-yellow undercoat, stuck his cold nose under her arm, Sakura hugged him around his neck, saying into his fur, “Arigato, for rescuing me,”. Hana smiled at the three boys circling Sakura, licking at her face, and pushing her along with their noses.

It made Hana wonder if perhaps there was an Inuzuka in her family tree somewhere, because they treated her like any other Inuzuka pup, treated her like they did her younger brother Kiba. She doubted it, but thought to tell her mother anyway that she may yet have another kid if those three had any say, because it wasn’t often that someone outside the Inuzuka treated their ninken like they were people and were thus practically adopted by the dogs.

They pushed and pulled Sakura along through the village, and up the stairs of the Hokage Tower after Shisui gave a subtle greeting to the ANBU perched nearby, right up to when they stood in front of Sandaime.

Sakura’s eyes teared up some at the sight of him, before she blinked them away and straightened, trying to deliver a mission report like her mother had taught her, “Ojii-sama, while I was pulling a prank on a chuunin the Archives, I detected a few chakra signatures that were moving in a path that put them in the blind-spot of any patrolling shinobi or to any civilian. Seeing that their target was the Archives, I caught their attention, intending to cause enough of a scene that they would abort their target or be noticed by ANBU. I failed there, when one revealed that they had an informant at the Archives before they took them with me, intending to gain enough information to capture a Hyuuga.”.

She fought a yawn then, still exhausted from the long stressful day.

Sandaime waved her over, “You did good Sakura-chan. Cheeky just like your mother too, calling me ‘Ojii-sama’ in a mission report.”, scooping her up and holding her on his lap, where she curled up and fell back asleep.

Then he gestured for Itachi and Hana to leave, with the understanding that they would hand him a written report by the end of the day, before Shisui handed over the scroll with the three Kumo shinobi sealed inside and delivered his own verbal report, giving the rest of the events of Sakura’s misadventure.

Sandaime dismissed Shisui with a frown, agreeing with the younger man’s assessment that the fact that the three had gotten within Konoha so easily, when he knew for a fact that ANBU patrols in that area were still increased after Kumo’s last attempt there, was _odd_. He didn’t want to say quite yet that it meant there was a traitor, beyond the one Sakura had reported, but either somebody was slacking or somebody had allowed them past. Neither option boded well.

Waving down his ANBU guard from where the two had been observing quietly out of sight, he didn’t need to say aloud that he wanted them to investigate into Sakura’s claims of a traitor and to make subtle inquiries into who would have been patrolling in that area.

Both Rabbit and Cat nodded, then were gone, leaving him to his thoughts with Sakura asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who caught that reference?  
> I’m not going to push that connection, but having a little more mythology about the origins of shinobi, of the clans, would have made Kaguya a little more feasible, then an abrupt add-in that just made things weird in canon. Kaguya is still up in the air in regards to my planned plotline, but I’m leaving room for it.  
> Is Kaguya too much? Thoughts?


	3. Curling Smoke Sheltering Blooming Flowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team bonds last longer than the genin team. Finding family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not going to own Naruto anytime soon.  
> Unbetaed.

Asuma returned to Konoha a couple of days after Sakura had been returned to the Orphanage after her kidnapping.

His father had sent word that his old genin-teammate and friend Ren had died shortly after her death, and he had immediately departed from the Daimyo’s company and his post as a Guardian of Fire. His friends among the other Guardians had understood that he had wished to pay his respects to a dear friend, and they had been on the verge of disbanding with several of them having received word from among their previous associates that they were being requested back. Several of the samurai in the group would stay on, but some had families they wished to get back to, and others had obligations.

He would not be returning to the Guardians though, as he had known that once he returned to Konoha, he would be returned to active mission duty as Konoha’s forces were still recovering almost six years after Kyuubi’s Attack and the decimation of a quarter of their standing force.

His father had also deemed it fit to mention that Ren’s daughter, a sweet little girl he remembered having a shock of pink hair when he’d last seen her as a babe, was orphaned, without a clan to take her in. That her aunt and uncle would be returning to Konoha from their traveling as far-flung merchants, but they would not be back in Konoha for roughly another six months at best.

He had known that his father wanted him to take her in for that time, and nearly refused for that assumption that he would, but he had long ago volunteered for that duty at her birth.

He remembered the girl that his father had practically adopted and who would cheekily address him as Ojii-sama, calling the old man the grandfather of the whole village, and who was now gone. Who had left behind a little girl that he’d promised to watch over if her mother had ever died before him, and now that his affairs were in order to let him come back, he could see no other option but to come home and to take care of little Sakura.

It didn’t make it any easier when he stepped back through the gates of Konoha for the first time in over five years. Nor any easier to face his father, the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, to formally get accepted back into the ranks of Konoha shinobi, reinstated as a jounin.

Lighting up another cigarette as he left the Hokage Tower, he meandered through the streets of Konoha, taking in all the sights and everything that had changed in his absence while making his way toward the Orphanage.

Passing the Archives on a whim, as his father had said that there was a good chance he would find Sakura there during this time of day. Being a whim, he didn’t think he would be witness to a very successful operation ran by a pair of children not quite pre-genin.

He heard a sparrow’s song, before a pink-haired dark blue blur leapt down from above the entrance to the Archives, from behind it’s signs in the shadows. Saw what he vaguely recognized as a pink-haired version of a child Ren, set some type of trap at the entrance before dashing inside.

She was in there for a couple of minutes, before there was an awful screech from inside, followed by an echoing high-pitched, pushed too far, “ _YOOOUUU!!!!_ ”.

Sakura raced back out, a wide smirk on her face, darting into the crowd that had begun to gather after hearing the first screech, before a chuunin dashed out of the Archives after her, only to trip over a wire at the doorway, making a bucket of mud fall from just above the entrance.

While the chuunin stood there spluttering in rage and covered in mud, a kunai was thrown to pierce a sack that had been hanging rather innocently from just beneath the sign above her.

He watched with some amusement as the bag burst open and various feathers, leaves, and even some type of animal fur, rained down on the mud-covered chuunin.

That was when the chuunin seemed to snap, screaming at one of the people in the crowd, a girl with wide dark blue eyes and long crimson hair standing next to a blond boy with whisker-like marks on his cheeks, the two looking eerily like the deceased Yondaime and his wife, “I know you’ve been screwing with me for months now!”, before lunging toward them.

The girl’s face flickered with a falsely-innocent ‘who me?’ expression before her eyes widened slightly in fear at the kunai in the chuunin’s hand. Then her eyes narrowed angrily, pushing the blond aside and out of the way.

Asuma was pushing his way through the crowd towards them after the chuunin had started screaming, sensing the impending violence, and had nearly been in front of the two kids when a pair of masked ANBU were suddenly there, having knocked the chuunin down and was now restraining them. He nodded in thanks to Cat and Hound, when the girl, her lip curling up slightly in her anger as her eyes flashed dangerously, squatted down to the chuunin, small fist grabbing at the chuunin’s filthy hair to pull their head up and off the ground so that she had to look her in the eye, “I was fine with just pranking you for doing a terrible job here at my mother’s pride and joy. Then I overheard you today lamenting the fact that Kumo didn’t kill me after I disappeared a few days ago. I hope T&I has _fun_ with you.”.

She bent closer, lips twisting up high on either cheek in a manner that made him think _Kyuubi_ , saying just loud enough that he and the two ANBU also heard, but not so loud that the boy would have, “I could have just reported what I had overheard to Ojii-sama, but you threatened Naruto on the street yesterday. I figured it was appropriate that the wrath of ‘Uzumaki Kushina’ be felt.”.

Asuma had the eerie premonition then that Sakura had gained all of Ren’s smarts, and was channeling Kushina’s prankster nature, with her very own vicious streak thrown into the mix. He didn’t want to think about what she would be capable of when she had the power to back up that vicious streak appropriately, when it was directed at those that had dared to harm in some way those that she cared for. Not when he remembered Ren had had her own vicious streak, and how she’d treated their jounin sensei for _years_ because of one unkind comment about kunoichi, before telling the other kunoichi of the comment and sitting back to let them beat it into him how kunoichi were _not weak_.

Not when he suspected that she’d purposely made the kunoichi snap now, after months of low-grade torment, for threatening Naruto, and had orchestrated it so that it was ANBU taking the woman down for her.

He would not be surprised if she ended up in the Bingo Book before she was fifteen, considered at least an A-rank threat upon said entry into the Book.

He did not see how still the two ANBU went after hearing Sakura say Kushina’s name, at her knowing of Kushina and the implication she knew who Naruto’s parents were with that little _display_ there with Naruto, tens of memories coming to the mind of Hound of what the _real_ Kushina would have done when her baby was threatened.

They would be watching her closely now for this.

~

After Sakura had returned to her normal coloring amidst Naruto’s loud exclamations of awe and admiration for his friend, she had turned viridian green eyes identical in shape and color to her mother’s on the young twenty-year-old shinobi that had lingered next to them.

Her eyes flicked up and down him, taking in his standard black long-sleeved shirt and pants tied with bandages along with his fore-arms and wrists, and ankles, his black sandals, his jounin flak jacket and Konoha hitai-ate, and the white cloth tied around his waist off to one side with the bold red kanji for fire. His tan skin and dark spiky hair and short goatee with his dark eyes was familiar her; it took but seconds for her to draw the similarities to Sandaime, making it clear that he was a Sarutobi, but there was something more.

She had seen a picture of a younger him, without the goatee, somewhere.

It took a moment for it to click as having been a picture of her mother’s genin team, “Sarutobi-san, do you need something?”.

His cigarette twitched as if he started to say something that he quickly shut down before he awkwardly scratched at the back of his head and started again, “You are Sakura-chan, right? I knew your mother when we were younger.”.

She raised a single eyebrow with a flat look, looking eerily like Itachi for a few moments, “You were on her genin team, weren’t you Sarutobi-san.”. She didn’t wait for him to answer before continuing, starting to walk down the street with both Naruto and the man following, the former without thinking of doing so, “Kaa-san that after the Kyuubi Attack, you got into a fight with Ojii-sama about him taking back the position of Sandaime at his age, and you stormed out of Konoha like a child. She said that Ojii-sama managed to get you assigned on a vague long-term mission with no return date, on his own dime that she outlined, so that you wouldn’t be declared a missing-nin. She knew you would come back when you were ready to be a grown-up again.”.

He sweat-dropped at hearing her repeat her mother’s words, honestly not surprised that Ren had said such things about him, nor that she’d consistently insult him while doing so. He did pause for a moment at hearing that his long absence had been explained away as a long-term mission, one that had been paid out of pocket by his father and drafted by her mother.

She shrugged as she led them through several alleyways in a shorter route towards the Orphanage, “She said that it was a very good thing that you managed to join the Guardians of Fire, because protecting the Daimyo was perhaps the only thing that you could have done that the Daimyo would not have signed off on for making you a missing-nin. If she hadn’t died, she would have dragged you back by your hair by now, had been making plans in fact; Kaa-san was _not_ pleased with you _at all_ for missing the birth of your nephew Konohamaru.”.

He regretted not coming back earlier now; he would have given anything for just one more moment with Ren, even if it meant he was to be dragged halfway across Kuno no Ho by his hair, just so he could thank her for having done this for him, for having had his back all these years.

She didn’t need to say that the Council, more specifically the greater part of the Council being mostly civilians – their clan heads and the various heads of important parts of Konoha – had been getting _twitchy_ , about his long absence, memories of Orochimaru still fresh in their minds, and that he had the fact that he _could_ come back (alive, and not considered a traitor), thanks to his father and her mother.

He would have to thank both, one in person and one in spirit, for that fact.

He stopped outside the Orphanage, “Sakura-chan? Would you . . like to come live with me until your aunt and uncle get back to Konoha?”, feeling more and more awkward the longer Sakura, and by extension Naruto as he had lingered unwilling to leave them alone, particularly after she had been kidnapped a few days before while he had been near but too far to know, just stared at him when he’d not left immediately after they got there. The fact that he had nearly seventeen years on her and felt all of _four_ was something he was starting to think was hereditary, because Ren had had the same look on whenever he’d done something particularly stupid in her eyes, further enhanced by how she’d cocked her hip and crossed her arms, and managed to look long-suffering.

She broke the one-sided staring contest by blinking, then flatly said, “No,”, and turned to enter the Orphanage without a second look.

He blinked, mouth opening and closing a few times before he found the word he wanted, “Why?”.

Sakura looked over her shoulder, pointedly flicking her eyes to the blond next to her, “I don’t know you. I would be better off here.”.

He understood what her unspoken terms were, “There would be nothing forcing you to be there when you don’t want to be. You could leave any time you wanted. Have your friends over as long as I have some warning. Just . . let me get to know you, please,”, and accepted them, as long as she gave him the chance to get to know the daughter of his precious friend, preferably while getting her out of the Orphanage. He wanted to do his best to do right by her.

Her eyes scrutinized him for a long moment, wanting to get to know the man her mother had talked about just as much as she had her father, but she had no real memories of him and was inclined to be cautious. Particularly after the debacle of her mother’s coworker, and thought-friend being not just incompetent, but a traitor.

She had thought that after a direct refusal, he would press for at most simply meeting with her for a handful of hours here and there, to say that he’d tried, when their meetings inevitably tottered out after a couple of months. And after seeing how much the village seemed to hate Naruto, forbid her friendship with him, like she would accept such terms if it meant leaving the Orphanage, to have the chance to get to know one of her mother’s friends. That he’d basically offer free reign of his home, and to Naruto as well, if she was with him and he knew of it, was something that she’d not thought he’d offer, particularly not so quickly, nor with the edge of desperation she could see in his eyes – as if it would destroy him a little inside if she refused to have anything to do with him.

She gave a short nod, accepting his offer, not having the heart to be able to refuse when she was sure that the desperation was his guilt at not being there for her mother these last few years as he thought he should have now, his guilt for not talking with her mother one more time, not when she could remember her mother saying that they’d been family and family don’t leave another to heartbreak.

He smiled then, thanking her for giving him this chance, and she could see why her mother had loved his smile, could see why her mother had loved him.

~

Having gotten her acceptance to live with him for the next six months, Asuma had realized that he had no place to live. He knew that he could move back into the Sarutobi compound like his brother had after he’d married, but for all that he’d come to a (fragile) understanding with his father (mostly because Ren would have been pissed that they were still fighting and neither had liked her mad at them), he still thought his feelings about his father taking up the position of Hokage again at his age were no less valid and he couldn’t bring himself to live in a place that his father should spend more time himself to get to know his grandson, but wouldn’t. His father had understood that they may be talking again, but that he still needed his space, and thus helped him get an apartment.

Bare of all but the essentials, he’d had to go buy a futon and basic cookware right away.

When he’d picked Sakura up from the Orphanage as soon as that was squared away, she’d inspected his apartment like if there had been just one thing wrong, she’d leave and not come back. He’d just watched her, unable to do anything but think that she was just like her mother so long ago (or not so long ago, honestly), poking about, sticking her nose everywhere, shuffling around and pointing out where he should hide kunai, and felt nostalgic.

After she was done, she’d lifted a corner of one of the two futons, raised an eyebrow at him and pointedly smacked it hard with the flat of her hand, which made a cloud of dust come from it. He’d winced at his lack of thought there, as she’d turned to the kitchen and pointed out what he hadn’t realized he’d forgotten, “Where’s your rice cooker?”.

An embarrassed flush nearly came to his cheeks before he’d seen the amused glitter in her eyes, and when she saw that he’d noticed, she’d laughed, “Kaa-san had made a bet with Ojii-sama that when you came back, that you would still lack basic cooking skills, and would forget to air out your futon.”. His cheeks turned a light red at hearing that Ren had tagged him right, and if he’d been any less mature, he might have pouted a little. (Might have pouted later at Ren's headstone, about her describing him like a child.)

By the end of the day, they’d gotten that rice cooker and aired out the two futons, then had gone out to eat at Ichiraku’s.

His eyes closed briefly at tasting the goodness that was Ichiraku ramen again, as they were still the best ramen he’d tasted in all of Fire Country, and he’d yet to find one that came even close to rivaling them.

Next to him, Sakura had started on her miso ramen, pretending to not see the supposed adult at her side have a _moment_ with his ramen, honestly not surprised because her mother had letter after letters from him talking about how, out of curiousity, he’d gone to other ramen stands, and never found one that rivaled Ichiraku’s. That they’d made a bet that he wouldn’t find one that did, and they took their friendly bets very seriously as it was a mainstay from their genin days together, in honor of their third teammate. (Sakura may have picked up the habit herself, but had no one to bet with.)

She’d nearly completed her bowl when he brought up events of a few days prior, “I heard you mention Kushina-chan’s name, where did you learn it?”. Her eyes flickered over to him for a moment, as he didn’t appear upset, perhaps even curious if she was reading him right, before she slowly responded, deciding that he wasn’t likely to respond badly to this knowledge which seemed to be something close to a secret, “Shisui-san and Hatake-san mentioned that Mikoto-sama gained her place as Uchiha Matriarch based off skill, and that if an Obito-san had proposed to a Rin-san, that between the two women, a revolution would have started among the Uchiha, and that Kushina-san would have gleefully spread it out to the rest of the village while Hana-san would have helped them.”. He blinked a couple of times, as he had been expecting her say something along the lines of her having come across a mention of her in scroll in the Archives, from Ren, from his father, _not that_ , then blanched at the idea the two men had made, having _no_ doubts that between the combination of Mikoto and Kushina, that such a revolution would have been _easily_ possible.

Sakura found his reaction _fascinating_ ; she was very pleased to have found more contemporary figures that fathered such respect, as while the Founders were still her heroes, Kushina and Miko were clearly worth looking further into. The Uchiha Matriarch would be harder to get information on, just considering how tight-lipped the Uchiha were, but Kushina might not be so difficult. That she was an Uzumaki, and clearly related to Naruto and Mito had been enough for her to start gathering information on her already, but _this_ type of reaction made it all the more _intriguing_. It made her wonder what type of kunoichi inspired such fearful respect that even dead, ANBU spooked at the mention of her wrath, that just the _idea_ of her involved made all things seem possible, like no one would be surprised that she would make the impossible possible. Whatever difficulties there may be to gaining more information on Kushina, Sakura _would_ be finding out as much as she possibly could on the woman, relation (mother or not) to Naruto aside, because Kushina was clearly somebody to idolize.

She thought that Asuma might even offer some insight (confirm one way or another her relation to Naruto), “I know she was related to Naruto, and Hatake-san alluded to the fact that the ANBU are still scared of her wrath, but I don’t know much more. Can you tell me a little?”, blatantly not mention that she _had_ found that Kushina had married Yondaime, and had been pregnant prior to October 10 th, due to give birth around then, that date the day of her death, and considering that Naruto was practically the Yondaime’s clone, her suspicions lay in that those two had been his parents. If Asuma could just _confirm_ that for her, that would be just _splendid_ ; would allow her to tell Naruto that he should be so _proud_ of his parents, to never let the Village treat him like the bastard son of a pair of infamous traitors and monsters, because he was the scion of royalty.

He took a moment to eat a little more, obviously thinking over what he could say, “Kushina-chan was his mother, a kunoichi that made it into the Bingo Book as the ‘Hot-Blooded Habanero’, considered to be A-rank. Being an Uzumaki, her fuuinjutsu was master-level, and qualified her as a tokubetsu jounin, with her traps remaining rather infamous here in Konoha considering how many times she pranked somebody.”.

He leaned over her a bit to whisper, appearing to huddle over his ramen to anyone looking, “For all her skill, which was not inconsiderable, she had a bit of a temper. There was more than one time she’d pranked the Council for being ‘old windbags who just liked to hear themselves talk’ when they pissed her off. Only once do I know of a time when the ANBU actively tried to stop her in a prank – in retaliation, she managed to locate and infiltrate their headquarters and redecorated every ANBU mask there. Apparently, occasionally, people are still finding these masks years later, and are left with white face paint on under the masks, or black raccoon masks around their eyes.”.

Sakura made a note to remember that prank, perhaps even try and follow an ANBU back to their headquarters and do up some fresh masks like that, if the ANBU do something not-good in the future, to remind them that someone was still holding them accountable.

Despite that she _really_ wanted to ask if the fact that the ANBU were still scared of Kushina was why they watched over Naruto, or if that was because he was the Yondaime’s son, she knew that would get her an immediate (not-nice) trip to either the head of Torture and Interrogation, Sandaime, or the captain-commander of the ANBU, about being able to identify when ANBU are present. The fact that she had counted on their presence a few days ago in her prank had already ensured that their eyes would be on her (for at least a while).

She was eating her ramen when Asuma glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, “That transformation jutsu you did, was excellent. If you had done that when Kushina-chan had been a child, it would have been very difficult to tell you two apart by appearances.”. She couldn’t help preening a little at the compliment, as she’d been practicing that jutsu for several weeks and had just managed to suppress the puff of chakra smoke that came with the transformation, not to mention she had made an educated guess on what Kushina had looked like, as she’d yet to get to her profile data in the Hokage Tower. He continued after a moment of drinking his broth, able to see how she preened even if she was hiding it, recognizing how she’d straightened and hid her smile behind her chopsticks just like her mother used to do, “Did you master that jutsu just to do pranks like that, to get a head start on your future classmates, or was there more of a purpose?”.

This time she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, thinking of the ten or so pranks Naruto and she had come up with that were now possible if she had mastered how to be taller with that jutsu, thinking of how she’d originally learned it because it was one of three E-rank jutsu pre-genin needed to know near-perfectly to graduate from the Academy, “As a child of a kunoichi of Konoha, I had access to E-rank justu, and I’ve always wanted to get into the Academy. My peers are going to be clan kids, I’ll be basically a civilian, I wanted to not be too far behind when I start, “, before the corner of her lips curled up a little in an almost-smirk, but she said nothing about how she would create a second identity so that she could step in for Naruto when the ANBU weren’t allowed. That she had seen the abysmal way most of the villagers treated Naruto, and one way or another, she would get them to stop treating him like a monster when he was just a beautiful soul.

Asuma remembered when her mother had smirked like that, and couldn’t help the shudder that went down his spine at seeing that same glitter in her eyes, and almost felt sorry for whoever had earned her ire, except that he didn’t doubt that they had earned it truly.

He looked longingly at his ramen, deciding that he would ignore the smirk for the sake of his sanity and so he could truthfully deny knowledge of whatever mischief she would surely be getting up to shortly, before he laid some money down on the counter, and waited for Sakura to finish her ramen so that they could go back home.

They learned how to co-habituate. They learned that Asuma tended to stay up late smoking, and Sakura got up early to start basic exercise meant to strengthen her body, that Asuma preferred to train with the silver-haired man Sakura would share early morning visits at the Memorial Stone with when he was in town, and that Sakura spent most of her afternoons drifting through the village, listening to what the villagers were saying and weren’t saying. Asuma pretended to know nothing of how she worked on creating that second identity with Naruto, just to see what the two could do on their own.

A week later, he accepted an escort mission.

She saw him off to the Gates with Naruto, her eyes sharp even as she smiled at him, leaning in close to him for a hug good-bye, whispering into his chest, “Don’t you dare die,”, and it wasn’t until later that day that he realized that she’d also pick-pocketed his smokes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly have no idea how anyone didn’t put two and two together regarding Naruto and Minato in the Narutoverse – it was nothing less than obvious because the two are carbon copies. They called him Uzumaki, partly in honor of his mother and her respected clan, and partly to hide him from his father’s enemies, but anyone who had ever seen the Yondaime would know. Until Jiraiya though, it’s never really addressed – even Kakashi only really makes one comment at the start of Team 7.  
> Sakura, noted as being particularly smart, is completely conceivable to being able to figure this out once meeting Naruto.


	4. A Night Rain Amongst the Cherry Blossoms, Mist Curling Around the Leaves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That which is considered harmless must shed one skin to show sharp fangs and razor claws underneath to be taken seriously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does Naruto still belong to Kishimoto? Yes. Yes, it does. That’s not me by the way.  
> Unbetaed.  
> 5-23-17
> 
> For those wondering, shinren and tairen are considered traditional training for beginning real-life ninja.  
> If there are any questions – headcannon, why I did such and such, feel free to leave a comment. Chances are, 98% of the time, there are actual reasons why I wrote as I did and can explain. The other 2% are the characters taking over briefly, and it felt right, so I kept it. Shisui’s presence so early on is a fine example of that.  
> I do take suggestions; I’m working a lot of little plotlines, and if one holds particular interest, I can weave it in a little tighter if I haven’t already done so. Suggestions of character appearances, if I haven’t already plotted their entrance or next appearance, are also wonderful.

Her mother, once she’d first expressed that she’d wanted to be a kunoichi like her, had started her on very basic _shinren_ and _tairen._ She’d been trying to work on being more observant and aware, being aware of minute details and if they changed, trying to remain calm under pressure, trying to respond instinctively to challenges and adapting to changing circumstances.

Asuma added to that, giving her a little instruction towards different exercises and body-conditioning that would boost her strength, her endurance, her speed, and her agility. He’d started to supervise what she’d been doing on her own in the early mornings before she went to visit the Memorial Stone, giving her little tips on how to improve, and having been taking a D-rank mission a day when they were available so that she could run around productively as she would tag along. While he was out of the village though, he had her mostly focusing on agility, on being limber, to build a strong foundation for her evasion and dodging skills.

He’d also left her a couple of kunai and shuriken for her to practice with to improve her aim, and for her to keep on her person for protection. When she’d asked about a basic storage seal, he’d shown her, unaware that she’d had an idea of what one would look like, but had wanted to see one being made, and he’d helped her use some of his own sealing ink to put a pair of basic storage seals on the insides of her wrists to hold a few weapons.

While he was gone on that first escort mission, she’d trimmed both her and Naruto’s hair, not wanting to ask him to cut her hair when as a profession, ninja didn’t get their hair cut by anyone other than trusted comrades, and she was starting to trust him enough to ask, but she wasn’t sure how he would react to being asked. Naruto’s hair had started to get a little long, and as much as she liked how the longer hair looked on him, made him look even more like the Yondaime, Naruto was his own person, and he liked the short unruly spikes. He’d asked her if she could cut his hair, and she had, deciding to cut her own hair some while she was at it.

She’d ended up with her center-part framing her face, her bangs nearly to her collarbones with the rest of her hair just a tad shorter to lay unevenly at chin-length. It wasn’t until after that she’d realized that she’d made her right bang slightly thicker in imitation of Uchiha Madara, and that if she’d cut the majority of her hair only a little longer than Naruto’s, _she’d_ have the Yondaime’s haircut.

As she’d technically been doing Asuma’s D-rank missions, he’d been giving her the majority of the mission pay for them, and thus she’d expanded her and Naruto’s wardrobe past the cast-offs the Orphanage had given them. She’d found Naruto a couple of shirts with a prominent red Uzumaki spiral on the front in varying colors, the majority a black but Naruto had snuck in one orange one, and had let him pick out a couple of dark pants to go with them, along with some sleepwear. The walrus sleeping cap had been just a joke when she’d shown him it, but he’d immediately lit up upon seeing it. She’d found herself a simple red short-sleeved long kimono top that came to just above her knees, and a pair of white mid-calf pants.

She’d been rather proud of herself for coming across two pairs of white tabi and straw waraji in their size left over from the last festival that she’d managed to get at half-price.

After Asuma returned from his escort four days after he’d left – when he’d seen her at the Gate, he’d smiled and ruffled her hair, then asked for his smokes back – they’d fallen into a pattern.

Sakura would wake up before the sun, do a couple of stretches, then start to cook breakfast. If Asuma was out on a mission, she would spend the next couple of hours doing various stretches to increase her agility before Naruto came over and they ate her breakfast. If Asuma was there, he would work her through the basic kata for a while, and they would eat when Naruto came over. If it was just her and Naruto, they would run laps around the village, talking about her second identity and things to change or add depending on what Sakura had learned the previous day. If Asuma was there, he would take them out to one of the training grounds and work them through more body conditioning, occasionally leaving to go pick out a D-rank before the genin teams got there, and which they would spend the rest of the morning completing. After lunch, often times at Ichiraku’s if it was Naruto’s turn to pick what lunch was, or it was the set of bentos Sakura made while she cooked breakfast, Asuma would go see if there was a C-rank mission he could take in a couple-hours distance to Konoha that he would go on during the afternoons. Often times, there was, and it would leave Sakura to make a quick stop to pick up more scrolls from the Archives, and she would teach Naruto some of the more basic stuff her mother had taught her, mostly interactively because he learned better that way, as they both planned to enter the Academy as soon as they could and despite being children of ninja, they might as well have been civilians without clans to teach them these basics, they didn’t want to be left behind.

Considering how many scraps Naruto got into because villagers were jerks and hated him, and the one time while Asuma had been out of the village and his head had been bleeding bad from a thrown bottle but the hospital had refused to take him for such a wound, Sakura quickly found her way into the C-ranked medical ninjutsu. Because she wasn’t all that sure that if push came to shove, and a villager _seriously_ hurt Naruto, if the hospital would take care of him. She thought that the ANBU that watched over him would stop it from getting that far, but there were days that the ANBU watching over him were apathetic and didn’t step in when normally they did, and she couldn’t trust that it would be enough. They’d learned from trial and error that Naruto healed _fast_ , but it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, that he didn’t bleed. Sakura might have accosted Asuma after he had come back from a two-day mission after that particular incident and made him teach her basic first-aid, and then searched out more complex first aid scrolls from the Archives.

Most of the games they did during the day were basically training, but she really made sure to teach Naruto the basics of strategy because she’d seen him make some stupid decisions when he got into fights, and wanted him to at least know when it was best to retreat and regroup and when it was best to push the advantage. Some of those games, he was able to beat her, particularly when the reward was Ichiraku’s, so she knew he wasn’t stupid despite what the villagers said about him.

With them still running pranks, mostly on villagers that went too far in Sakura’s opinion in their dislike of Naruto, Sakura dug through the dusty scrolls on codes, and started to teach them both shinobi hand-signs. They practiced on the ANBU watching Naruto, most particularly Hound, flashing basic hand-signs about their pranks, telling him what they would do.

It was something they’d learned after all; You didn’t hide pranks from ANBU, you wouldn’t get it pass them, so you got them onboard. After that stunt with the chuunin at the Archives, Sakura was always careful to not draw the ANBU forward like that again, not wanting their attention, but she’d always factored in their presence.

Depending on how ridiculous the prank was, and they’d tried some truly creatively ridiculous pranks just for Hound’s reaction, they could startle the ANBU from his perch. The best of their pranks were the ones they managed to get the ANBU to snort or give a rough laugh because of it.

Naruto didn’t have the patience Sakura had, and didn’t pick up the older hand-signs that Sakura had learned, the ones from before the Second War and that were elaborate, capable of giving nearly complete sentences. Sakura had been beyond gleeful when she’d stumbled across an ancient scroll from the time of the Sage of Six Paths with _their_ hand-signs, showcasing a complex language far beyond the comparatively simple and rudimentary modern one, and worked on that when she was alone with a clone.

With their pranks, they practiced how to gather information about their targets from simply listening in; Sakura planting the seeds for an expansive information network as she focused on the merchants and plied them for various pieces of information as she bought things to the point they would start telling her things if she even slightly alluded to wanting to know things. The two of them learned to track their targets through the village, learning how to blend and follow the slightest clues while staying out of sight. More than once they learned the best way to infiltrate public buildings in tracking their victims.

When Sakura stumbled across a scroll detailing traps, she and Naruto had spent a week _devouring_ the thing, then spent the next month altering those trap and making them their own.

While Asuma was out on a mission, they had snuck into one of the genin training grounds under a transformation jutsu and had basically booby-trapped nearly every corner of it. The next morning, they’d dragged a half-awake Asuma to the area to watch perched from one of the few ‘safe’ trees as the jounin instructor innocently told their three genin to start their warm-ups only for traps to start going off.

Sakura did not know that the ANBU who had been watching Naruto those couple of days had reported to their commander with a bit of a shiver about the ‘Trouble Twins’ as they’d started to be called, nor that among the ANBU, there were bets flying about on who would be their next target and _how_ they would prank them.

There were some days where Sakura told Naruto that they were playing hide-and-seek, and they would practice hiding and she would practice her ability to seek out his chakra.

Those days, the ANBU hated her because they both knew the village inside-out and knew all the best places to hide that even some of the ANBU didn’t know of and occasionally lost their ANBU tail for a while.

Other days, when Asuma was gone for missions longer than a week, they would go out into the forest surrounding Konoha and do survival training, pretending they were wild children and that there was no village because these were the days of the Warring States.

Those days, the ANBU would keep Sandaime constantly updated because otherwise the man would do little other than worry about them, and if some of them double-backed on their patrols, it was because most of them had watched over Naruto at one point or another and not because for all the content of the game was a little heavier than most children their age, it was still just fun and games making light of their lives and making them smile behind porcelain masks.

They all knew Sakura staying with Asuma wasn’t permanent, not when they both had been informed that her aunt and uncle were coming back for her, and that in the back of their minds, they’d been counting the days, but it still had come as a bit of a shock when one morning while they were eating breakfast, an ANBU had showed up in their window and told them that Sakura was wanted in the Hokage’s office and that an older couple were waiting there for her.

Sakura didn’t do much in those first few days of living with her father’s brother and his wife, carefully feeling them out and showing only the things they wanted. She was afraid that if she wasn’t the little girl, the ‘Sakura’ that they wanted, that they would let her loose. The chuunin in charge of the Orphanage that week had already told her that, despite having children years older than her still there, she was ‘old enough’ at a little over six-and-a-half to fend for herself if she was unwilling to stop her association with that ‘damn fox’, to stop associating with Naruto. She was afraid that if they did kick her out, that Asuma would not take her back. She was afraid that he wouldn’t be allowed to because it would mean Naruto would go with her, that he would be adopting both of them.

Not even a day of her out of his home, and the Council had leapt at Asuma’s lack of obligations inside the village where he was no longer able to deny missions longer than a week, and had sent him out on a mission that would last at least a month, if not for three.

As it was, with Naruto having spent most of the last six months away from the Orphanage, having barely been there for curfew most nights, the Council – the mostly civilian part – had pulled out some long-forgotten technicality; if a child went six months without being present for at least two meals and curfews, with evidence of their own income, they no longer needed the support of the Orphanage. It meant that he was ‘old enough’ to make it on his own in their eyes, no matter how it had been an open secret that Asuma had been picking up D-ranks for them to keep busy with.

Naruto was left to live on the streets. Thanks to their love of hide-and-seek, he knew the best places to hide out to get a few hours of sleep, and which merchants were friendly to him thanks to his association to Sakura, who they adored, and would give him food that wasn’t ‘good enough to sell’ to help him.

Sakura tried to help as well; she found him an old tatami mat to sleep on, found him blankets, made him bentos.

Her aunt hadn’t reacted well when she found out that it hadn’t been a stray dog that she’d been taking care of. She had fainted briefly upon find out that Sakura was associating with Naruto, then had screamed hysterically at her uncle about how that ‘damn fox’ was tainting their little girl. Her uncle had been very solemn, very resolute when he had banned her from associating in any manner with Naruto. Then had grounded her to their home, and she was then unable to go anywhere not accompanied by her aunt, who made it very clear by how just by seeing blond spikes on the street, would turn the other way and take a long scenic route to wherever she was going instead of spending even two minutes in Naruto’s vicinity.

Considering how good Naruto and her had gotten at breaking _into_ things, it hadn’t been too hard to break _out_.

Naruto, having believed he’d gotten his only friend in trouble because that was all he’d been told he _was_ (other than by Sakura), he had tried to avoid her when she went looking for him. _Tried_ to avoid her, because he’d made the attempt to hide from her, and she’d spent the entire night hunting him down like a pink devil, to the amusement of Naruto’s ANBU watch-dog, until she’d whacked him a couple of times to get it through his thick head that _he was her friend, and come hell or high water, they would have to drag her dead body from his side before she stopped being his friend_.

He had smiled, his nose bloody from where as she’d tackled him to the ground to catch him, his nose had hit the ground hard and bled, and made the smile bloody, and told her that when the next groups of kids started at the Academy, he would be going thanks to ‘Ojii-sama’.

The next day, her aunt had decided because she’d been such ‘an exceptionally well-behaved little girl after that fox brat had been left behind’ for the last couple of weeks, she deserved a day out of the house out at the local park.

It had taken a lot out of the exhausted Sakura to not snark out that a real reward would have been a visit to the Archives, if she wasn’t ‘allowed’ to be friends with Naruto.

Once the two of them had gotten to the park, her aunt had gone to where she’d seen the other mothers were sitting, leaving Sakura to play amongst the falling leaves. It didn’t take long for some of the older boys present to start taunting her about her forehead.

They were old taunts, unimaginative, and she could have ignored them because they didn’t bother her anymore. Only, she could hear the women gossiping, and she wasn’t sure how much her aunt could hear.

It had only been a couple of weeks, but Sakura had already figured out her aunt wanted a girly-girl as a daughter – one that was quiet, timid, and without much of a backbone, always subservient. Weak. She thought that the Sakura her aunt wanted would be sensitive to this sort of thing, would be a bit of a crybaby at being called ‘Billboard brow’, and ‘Forehead Girl’.

So, she cried big crocodile tears.

Her aunt didn’t look over from where she was gossiping with the other women, but the tears did attract a familiar blonde girl, who’d she’d noticed had been looking for something, _someone_.

Ino would later tell her that she’d been looking for her, having not seen her around in a while.

She ran over to Sakura, yelling at the boys, making them scatter once they saw she wasn’t alone anymore. She smiled at Sakura, “Sakura-chan!”, eyes bright, “Remember me?”.

Sakura smiled shyly, “H-hai, Yamanaka-san.”, a little surprised that she had sought her out after not seeing her for weeks. Ino smiled wider, pleased that she hadn’t been forgotten, “Don’t let those boys bother you, Sakura-chan, Kaa-san says boys our age pick on girls that they like.”.

Sakura blinked a little at the reasoning, not following that line of thought well, as they were just little kids and she didn’t understand why if they did like her, that they couldn’t just come out and ask her to play instead of doing exactly the opposite of what would get her to like them, making Ino giggle a little while she explained further, “Because you’re pretty Sakura-chan!”. Then she pulled the red ribbon holding her hair back off her head (again) and held it out to Sakura as her pink locks fell into her face once more, “Here, you want to pull your hair back so it doesn’t get into your eyes. Your eyes are so pretty Sakura-chan, like pieces of jade.”.

She caught the red ribbon, holding it up for a moment, eyeing it, distantly wondering how many of these Ino had because this was the second time Ino had given her a hair accessory without a second thought, before Ino giggled at the face she was making, “Do you want me to pull your hair back for you, Sakura-chan?”, and she nodded shallowly, “If you could Yamanaka-san,”. The giggles continued as she gently pulled on Sakura’s shoulder to turn her away from her so that she could get at the back of Sakura’s head, “You don’t have to call me ‘Yamanaka-san’, Sakura-chan, you can call me Ino,”, catching most of the pink strands beside her long bangs, and then tying the red ribbon on the top of her head, smiling at her handy-work, “Do you want to be friends?”.

Sakura thought for a moment; Ino was a clan kid, and a pretty girly-girl. She would be the perfect model for convincing her aunt and uncle to let her to go to the Academy.

Sakura knew that Ino may or may not have her own motives for approaching her, but she also found herself once again thinking that she could like the other girl for herself, and not just what she was.

She smiled at Ino, wide and bright, hopeful that she could have herself her second friend, “Then let’s be friends, Ino-chan.”.

After that fateful (re-)meeting, Sakura found herself at the park nearly every day playing with Ino. They bonded over their love of flowers, and more than once, Ino dragged her back with her to her family’s flower shop so that they could admire the multitude of plants there.

She was sure that the Yamanaka that worked the counter those days saw her swipe a flower or two used in low-grade natural poisons. He didn’t say anything though, watching her curiously occasionally, and she made sure to leave the appropriate amount of coins behind when she did, so she wasn’t technically stealing them. They both knew what she was planning with them, as it was a fairly common practice among the Yamanaka to build up a natural immunity to poisons common to Konoha, and fairly standard for anyone who intended to deal with poisons in more than a passing manner, particularly among kunoichi.

In one of the scrolls that she’d found months before, an older scroll from the first shinobi war that had been something of a kunoichi’s handbook, it had been describing some common practices that had for some reason, fallen out of practice since then, like building up immunities to common poisons. And one of the scrolls she’d recently snagged from the Archives had been about poisons, specifically the most common ones and those natural to Konoha, another scroll about healing herbs. Ino had also been a wealth of information about the flowers, about what they meant, about what arrangements meant what, which ones were poisonous, and which ones healed.  Sakura wanted to build up a natural immunity to common poisons, to give herself an edge – and because she really liked some of things described in that handbook, like layering a net of senbon into any hair long enough to be grasped by an enemy, which she managed with a thin headband laid under her ribbon – and wanted to know what herbs would complement the basic medical ninjutsu she was learning. The flowers she got from the Yamanaka flower shop were for poisons that were nothing worse than making her a little sluggish afterwards, making her feel sick, nauseous, vomiting, having a low fever, and various aches and pains. Nothing that would be too worrying to any adult, or appear beyond a simple cold to a civilian.

When she wasn’t with Ino, she was practicing the _shinren_ and _tairen_ she knew in the early morning hours, and carefully singing Ino’s praises and alluding to a longing to be just like Ino to her aunt and uncle. She talked about how Ino would be going to the Academy in a few months, and played just the right notes of sad and longing and envious to tell them without ever saying the words that she wanted to go too. She snagged more scrolls from the Archives about codes and seals, spending a few hours here and there in the caverns behind the Hokage Monument breaking down seal after seal – besides that Uchiha seal that just refused to be broken despite its appearance of simplicity – and resealing them when she would find supplies for a village-in-hiding. She learned from her aunt in the mornings what little civilian girls were supposed to know to be good wives, before she went to play with Ino, and snuck out in the evenings with a clone left in her place as she went to practice with Naruto as a little red-haired girl.

Her network of unknowing informants told her all about how Asuma looked when he was seen in the village, told her when the silver-haired jounin was in town, told her anything they heard about Shisui and Itachi and Hana. If these civilians knew anything she wanted to know, she just had to allude to that subject, and that information was hers.

Some nights she didn’t sleep at all, meditating instead. She worked out the details of the second identity for her that she and Naruto had crafted, thought of how to present the idea to Sandaime so that he would help her get the necessary papers to put the identity into action, and worked through some – but particularly that Uchiha seal that just refused to be broken – of the seals hidden in the caves behind the Hokage Monument.

In the next three months, Sakura went out more and more as a red-haired girl with dark grey-blue eyes to run around with Naruto throughout the day, as she left a clone with her aunt and uncle when she wasn’t with Ino.

Slowly, she felt her meager chakra reserves grow. Slowly, she felt like when the Academy started with her age-group, that she could be on as close as equal footing with her future classmates as she could get without being a shinobi clan kid herself.

Three months after Ino befriended her, Sakura was beaming as she sat on the Yondaime’s head with Naruto while the sun set, telling him that her aunt and uncle had finally caved and had allowed her to enter the Academy with the next year’s class, particularly after the Sandaime had informed them that they would not have to pay the entrance fee for her, because Ojii-sama had told her that she’d earned her way in after giving Shisui the slip so many times. They had shared some stolen pocky in celebration at the fact that soon, they would be pre-genin together, could soon be friends again openly.

After Asuma had returned from his month-long mission, he’d found that Sakura had found out that she was still keyed into the traps around his apartment, and she would leave him bentos on the days he would come back from missions, and would leave him a fresh pack of smokes after particularly long missions (he pointedly didn’t think of how she was getting them, though he was proud of her for either having developed the skill to flinch them without being caught or for having done a henge well enough to fool a store owner). After her formal acceptance into the Academy, she had left him a scroll detailing ‘Uzumaki Amayasaki’.

It had taken her a couple of months, but Sakura had found out about the lonely little apartment Hatake lived in, and found that his traps were keyed into a chakra lock – a basic one due to how often she heard he came back with chakra exhaustion or escaped the hospital early and thus had to be able to not set off his own traps half-aware – and through it took a couple more months, broke into it. Once she could break in, she would throw out his old food because he always forgot to throw it out before leaving on his mission, then would bring fresh basics in if she had heard he’d just returned to the village so that he had something to eat, and would water his little cactus every few weeks while he was gone. When she heard that he’d been in the hospital, and then when she would see how gingerly he held himself as they held their morning vigils at the Memorial Stone, she tried to restock his medical supplies when it looked like it had gotten a little low on something.

She’d been unable to help her snickers when she’d overheard Hound try and pass along his thanks to whichever masked comrade was taking care of his apartment in his absence, and the other ANBU, Cat, had just been confused at the information.

The next time she was in his apartment, a few days after this awkward exchange, she left him a flower arrangement that essentially told him she was a friend who cared about his wellbeing.

She’d snickered a little again when as she’d hung around Ino in the Yamanaka’sflower shop, Hatake had come in with the flowers and asked about who’d bought some recently. The Yamanaka had raised an eyebrow at her quiet snickers, as Ino had started giggling because of how those flowers were common purchases – and part of why Sakura had used those particular ones – the elder Yamanaka had known that she’d swiped – and paid – for those flowers the day before, but hadn’t pointed that out. Hatake had frowned at that information, but there had been a spark of curiosity and interest in his eyes at this game.

Hatake started going on shorter missions, ones where he wouldn’t be gone too long in an attempt to be nearby, and it had taken some creative stories to get him sidelined in the village long enough for her to get into his apartment, leave something, and then get out before he could get back some times. She was aware that he’d made his traps deadlier, thinking that she’d simply gotten past his basic traps and not the lock if she wasn’t ANBU, but she’d keyed herself in.

When it had been a couple of more weeks, and still she’d been able to get in despite his very-much-lethal traps, she’d knew that he’d enrolled one of his ninken to try and find her. Mostly because a ninken appeared in her room one evening.

Her first instinct upon sensing a strange chakra in her room had been to suppress her own, and activate the seal she’d placed on her room to immobilize the intruder, before releasing one of the seals around her wrist to grip a kunai, and casually walk in to a dog on her pillow. It was a small, squat dog that had appeared on her pillow, with a dark blue band with the Konoha hitai-ate tied around his head and a dark blue vest on his back with the characters for _henohenomoheji_ arranged like what children drew on scarecrows, on it.

She raised an eyebrow upon seeing the design, and the blatant show that this was one of Hatake’s dogs. The dog, a pug, that had been inspecting her room, with its pink and the sakura motif, raised an eyebrow at her for how _disarming_ she appeared, seeming not at all concerned despite basically being temporarily paralyzed from the neck down, “So a kid has been the one breaking into the Boss’ home. I was half-expecting it to be Genma just having been covering up his scent unusually well with another’s.”.

She eyed him for a moment, deeming him little threat as he was, but didn’t put her kunai away, “Hatake-san didn’t make it easy, but it wasn’t impossible. If the traps didn’t have a bypass in that chakra lock, it would have taken me considerable longer to figure out how to disable those.”.

The pug’s eyes narrowed slightly, as his master had ultimately put in the chakra lock, yes because he needed an easy way to bypass his own traps when he wasn’t at his best, but also because a chakra lock was not easy to break. The standard version had three ‘slots’ for the creator’s chakra, then two others. This specific one had a slot keyed into a corresponding seal on all legitimate ANBU masks as well as to Hatake’s chakra, with one additional open slot. To fill one of the slots, it took some of the creator’s chakra to key in somebody else’s. There were supposed to be no exceptions.

Sakura, who had watched Asuma closely as he keyed in both Naruto and her into his own seals on his apartment, had through trial and error with a chakra lock of her own, had figured out how to unravel one just enough to gain access to another’s chakra lock. It wasn’t easy, had taken hours, and was dangerous because even one slight mistake could set off the chakra lock. She half-suspected it was only because of her own high level of chakra control that she’d managed it at all.

She shrugged at his suspicion, “I had to unravel that seal enough to get into it. Almost blew myself up doing so – multiple times.”.

He temporarily put aside his disbelief that she’d managed such a thing, something he hadn’t even realized was possible, to instead ask a rather important question; “Why are you even breaking into the Boss’ home in the first place?”.

Absently twirling her kunai around a finger, she answered bluntly, meeting the ninken’s eyes head-on, “Hatake-san is a good man. A man who cares deeply, enough so that at least seven years later, is still religiously visiting the Memorial Stone to tell his dead former teammates how things are going. Yet he has few people who care about him presently,”, listing off with her fingers, “Ojii-sama tries, but he has a whole village to care for so he can’t devote himself to being there for him. That man in a green suit with the bowl cut, Maito-san, definitely has the enthusiasm and will, but Hatake-san rebuffs him after a while, keeps him at a distance as that man is a bit much. Asuma-san to a degree, since he’s come back to the village. There are a couple others that he interacts with on a somewhat-regular basis, Cat and Rat most often, but not about personal things.”.

The pug couldn’t argue her point, that his master literally had five people in the whole village who cared about him as a person, “He has been kind to me. Keeping that bare apartment livable, stocked with edible food, and trying to keep his medical supplies well-stocked because he can’t seem to remain in the hospital when injured, are the least I can do.”.

He couldn’t help but wonder if she had been looking for an excuse to care for his master, because just being ‘kind’ wouldn’t warrant that much from anyone else.

If she wanted to do this for his master though, he wouldn’t stop her. That overgrown brat needed it; he didn’t really have anyone digging into his business on a regular basis to see how he was doing, _actually_ doing, didn’t have anyone to interact on a regular basis beyond the duration of a mission. The man was too isolated, practically alone with few things tying him to the living, with unhealthy coping mechanisms and fanatic-levels of dedication without an outlet.

If looking for her and trying to figure her out, trying to figure _why_ she wanted to care for him, kept him from going out on back-to-back missions without a break, without a pause even when he was injured, when it was taking him longer and longer to thaw from his behind the mask – besides from when he was watching over his sensei’s kid, oddly, in recent days – then he was all for her continuing to do this.

Sakura smirked a little at seeing that the ninken wasn’t exactly saying that she needed to stop breaking into Hatake’s apartment, “I won’t go digging through his apartment if that’s what you’re worried about. Nor will I gossip about what I may or may not come across while there. I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing.”.

He nodded, finding this an agreeable proposal, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t end this by telling his master who was breaking into his apartment if she did something he didn’t approve of, or find her again if she didn’t abide by their rules.

Then he blinked, as she’d alluded to twice now in not so many words that she knew his master was ANBU, and that right there would make her security risk go up as Hound was a top-ranking S-class ANBU whose identity was top-secret. He sighed after a second though; it wasn’t exactly inconspicuous that Hound had silver hair and a sharingan eye, just like his master, and it was more-or-less an open secret to anyone who’d glimpsed Hound without ending up dead – through it did beg the question how did _she_ see Hound.

Her smirk widened then, deciding to put that second identity of ‘Uzumaki Amayasaki’ to the test with this opportunity, “When you report back to Hatake-san, tell him that you found a redheaded girl just short of puberty. I don’t need the kind of attention that comes from being able to break into his home would bring to _me_ , just yet, and pink hair isn’t exactly a common trait.”, and knew that the identity was as good as she could make it, and thought that she had laid sufficient groundwork for Hatake to find, to not suspect that Amayasaki was anything but an actual person, “I want to see how well the identity I made holds up when it’s poked by curious shinobi.”.

The pug chuckled slightly, seeing the mischief playing in her eyes, “I’ll play along, pup, as long as you don’t do something to upset the Boss. I won’t help him find you, for now, but I won’t hinder him for you either.”, and wanting to see how far she could go – not to mention that a puzzle like this would keep that overgrown brat busy, and giving his body time to heal.

Sakura nodded, not having expected any better than that, as even the dog’s silence was still more than she’d dared to hope for, and had been preparing to be ‘caught in the act’ soon anyway if Hatake had persisted searching for her, to keep him from finding _her_ unaware, and the dog left in a small poof of chakra smoke.

The next day, in the morning before she normally went and played with Ino, she made a clone and left her there to do her usual things, then snuck out the window and slipped through the streets until she was away from the civilian residential district, careful to stay out of sight.

She re-appeared near the marketplace as a twelve-year-old-girl with deep crimson shoulder-length hair and dark grey-blue eyes in the shape of Mito’s, and many of Kushina’s facial features but slightly more heart-shaped like her own normally.

Sakura had been using this appearance for weeks, for a little longer than when she had first broken into Hatake’s home, but still the faint, startled surprise, when somebody saw her like this, was amusing. That more than one person had breathed out, _“Kushina-sama,”_ in shock, was _deeply_ amusing, because even without outright being Kushina, she could who had once been Kushina’s targets for pranks years ago, startle and correct whatever bad behavior they thought she would have corrected them on.

When she could see one particular merchant, who would always sneer at the sight of Naruto, suddenly pale and turn a blind eye when Naruto would browse his wares when with her, and let the blond have it for half-price _of what everyone else would have paid for it_ , **not** the _twice_ the marked price as par usual for Naruto, his eyes would flicker to her and she would _smile_ , showing off her sharp teeth.

Even without Naruto there, he still paled and stuttered a little in his current sell at sight of her.

Sakura felt not a little guilt at scaring him, not after he’d spit on Naruto and called him a bastard of a monster, and contemplated doing more to _really_ make it sink in, that she would not tolerate anyone treating Naruto like he was _nothing_ , like he was _less_ than nothing.

She flashed him a sharp grin as she moved for a different stall, this one of a Kiri immigrant, browsing the thick water-resistant cloth. Sakura really liked the designs of the different clothes of Kiri, at the different weaves and motifs, of the bold colors that went beyond the favored green, blue, red of Konoha. She still could not figure out what the citizens of Konoha had against _purple_ , because she could count on _one hand_ and still have fingers left over, of the people she’d seen wearing purple in Konoha, one of those from Konoha.

The owner of the stall, a woman, smiled widely upon seeing her, “Uzumaki-chan,”, showcasing her own sharp teeth, then pushed over a deep blue, nearly purple, kimono top with a wave motif along the hem, “This would look good on you, bring out your eyes.”, trying to find something that she would buy as par usual for her visits.

Holding it up against her chest, Sakura had to admit that the woman was making it more and more difficult to deny her a sell, as she could see that it would, and would darken the shade of her hair by giving it the illusion of a more plum-like shade when against the blue. That it was absolutely beautiful, with the short sleeves making it look like water was running up her elbows to her shoulders, was perhaps the selling point, “It’s far too beautiful for me, Hikari-san, meant for a princess,”.

The woman’s dark eyes narrowed slightly, before she made a small gesture with her hand out to the rest of the marketplace, “It does not matter how beautiful a piece is, when those from Kiri are treated like they harbor a boogeyman, and avoided. Those from Kiri try to not visit shops by those who also fled Kiri, to not give your village’s masked protectors a reason to think we are conspiring against Konoha by gathering together. I get very little business at all, Uzumaki-chan; I can sell what I want to whoever I deems fits the piece when I find a customer at whatever price I say,”, before smiling softly, holding out the shirt again, “Particularly when that customer makes a habit of typically visiting once a day to see how I’m doing, and whose design suggestions have sold me several things. For you, Uzumaki-chan, half-price.”.

Sakura carefully took the shirt, passing over most of the coins she’d been hoarding since she had come to live with her aunt and uncle, nearly the last of the money she’d earned while living with Asuma, before the woman herded her into the back to a changing room, “In another time in Uzushiogakure, you would have been a princess, so yes, it’s meant for _you_ ,”, allowing her to peel off the long red kimono top she’d wear as Amayasaki, to put the dark blue one on, so that it hung over the dark purple mid-calf pants she wore with a deep purple haramaki, “Maybe Hikari-san, but that is not here nor now,”.

She purposely did not think of how in that other time, that this ruse would have never worked, but also would not have been needed, because Naruto would have had a _clan_ , would have had _family_ , could have been a prince if she was right about Kushina being Naruto’s mother, and Mito’s great-niece.

When she came out, Hikari was smiling, and adjusted the black cloth with the crimson Uzumaki clan spiral so that it lay just right from where it was pinned to hang off her left hip from the haramaki, “You look beautiful Uzumaki-chan, like a true kunoichi of the Uzumaki, stunning and deadly at once.”. The other woman winked then, “I’ve never met an Uzumaki, beyond that poor boy here, that didn’t have at least a handful of seals always on their person,” subtly tapping how pinned on the back of the cloth was a fuuinjutsu brush made to turn minute amounts of chakra to ink when channeled through it, “and all while looking pretty as a picture.”. Hikari gently shooed her out of the shop then, “That clansman of yours could use the strong guiding hand of another Uzumaki to remind him of his clan pride.”, eyes soft as she remembered the Uzumaki before the fall of Uzushiogakure, and that this young girl reminded her of every great that had come from that clan, and she hoped that she could be the next great.

Sakura smiled as she waved good-bye, “That’s what I came here for, Hikari-san,”, making the other smile wider, thinking that perhaps Amayasaki _could_ become the next great Uzumaki, her pale gold hair glittering in the early morning light, “Good!”.

Then she left in the direction of the Hokage Tower, hearing the quiet whispers of those who’d heard her declaration, having an answer at last to the question that had been floating around about her since her first appearance as Amayasaki; that she’d come to Konoha because word of an Uzumaki had reached her ears and she’d come to take them (him) in.

Her smile was sharp as she heard their quiet unease of the boy the village hated no longer being an orphan, no longer being clan-less, and thus having no firm protector, and that now, he had a clan that they owed the village’s creation to just as much as any Senju or Uchiha, backing him, even if she was just one person. She was aware that the fact that she had appeared to come from the mist rather suddenly for Naruto would gain her a visit by ANBU, to Torture and Interrogation, to be sure that she wasn’t the pawn of another village seeking to take the child they hated but couldn’t leave; she knew the Council had to be thinking of what it would say if an Uzumaki, one of the clan that much of the image of Konoha was based on, the last of the clan in the village at that, would leave at just the whisper of affection a supposed clanmate offered.

They didn’t need to know that Naruto would not leave if somebody else had showed up and claimed to be an Uzumaki, Naruto would never leave because his dream was being Hokage, and they would have to drag him away, and it was only because Naruto knew she was Amayasaki, that she was succeeding in ‘stealing away’ Naruto.

It would be worth any pain if it meant that the whole world would be told that Naruto wasn’t the village’s go-to punching-bag anymore. Naruto was _hers_ ; her friend, her _family_.

No one would listen to her as a child, one without a great shinobi clan backing them, giving weight to her words; they would not care to notice that hiding behind the shock of pink hair, that beyond her civilian background, that she had a kitten’s sharp teeth and would one day have a mouthful of fangs. For a village of ninja, no one would think to look beneath the surface when it came to her unassuming form until she had made them bleed rivers.

Sakura thought that her mother would be proud of her for working to remind the shinobi world why becoming a ninja wasn’t restricted to solely the clans; for reminding Konoha that legends could come from no-names.

Considering her status as an outsider currently as Amayasaki, Sakura walked in through the front door of the Tower – not to mention that it was just _rude_ to enter the Hokage’s office through the window unless it was an emergency – feeling the eyes of every shinobi there on her, hearing the whispers of _‘so the rumors of another Uzumaki in the village were true’_ , and jutting out her chin proudly against their suspicions. Then she bowed deeply at where she sensed an ANBU had hidden themselves at the rumors of an Uzumaki, “If you would take me to Hokage-sama, ANBU-san, you would do me a tremendous favor.”.

Sakura smirked a little on the inside at it being Hound that made himself known, his silver hair bright against the crimson-stained kumadori of his porcelain mask.

He nodded slightly once she’d raised her head from her view of the floor, before he’d led her up the steps straight to the broad red-painted wooden doors of Sandaime’s office, then knocked.

Sandaime called out, “Enter,” in short order, eyes already on them as they came in, having been expecting her since his son had passed him word of Sakura’s ‘Uzumaki Amayasaki’ with a quick comment of how with, or without, his formal approval, he didn’t doubt that Ren’s daughter would find a way to stand up for Naruto. Looking at her now, he found that he didn’t doubt it at all.

The whispers he’d been getting of a foreign Uzumaki in the village these last several weeks, had been smart of her, he had to give her that, to cement her existence so that she didn’t seem to just suddenly appear. When he’d heard the whisper of what ‘Amayasaki’s’ intent was for being in Konoha, he’d known to expect her within the hour.

He dismissed Hound after a moment, idly wondering if she’d planned to have Hound escort her, if Sakura knew that Hound was Kakashi, if she knew the Hatake’s, particularly Kakashi’s, extensive connection to the Uzumaki clan and that he would have felt honor-bound to protect her until he could ferret out whether she was, or was not, an Uzumaki.

Considering that Sakura had made Amayasaki for one express purpose, he wouldn’t put it past the girl to have figured out Hound’s identity, even if her planning to have Hound escort her seemed unlikely, but he still kept the possibility in mind as it wouldn’t be beyond her to suspect that Hound would show up at the Hokage Tower if she was anything like her mother, through why that was significant only Sakura could give him an answer.

When Hound later told him how ‘Amayasaki’ addressed him while he’d been hiding, he would wonder how long had she been planning such an entrance, and how far such a skill extended – having had only inklings of suspicions of Sakura having such a skill before, mostly from Shisui.

Sakura smiled at him, “Sandaime-sama, I hope you are in good health. Did you receive my inquiry of becoming a citizen of Konoha? I understand that due to my time beyond the walls of Konoha, if my petition to becoming a kunoichi would be denied.”, her grey-blue eyes assessing.

He almost shook his head in admiration at her sheer gall, but knew that right now, he wasn’t dealing with the goddaughter of his son, he was dealing with a kunoichi on a (self-appointed) mission.

He brought his hands together in front of him, and smiled warmly, proud of Sakura even if he was dismayed at how far she’d felt she’d had to go to stand by Naruto; proud that Naruto had gained such a staunch supporter, and dismayed at how he suspected that nothing less would be accepted by the Council for the boy to have someone openly in his corner, “Uzumaki-san, I am indeed in good health, and the concern is appreciated. I did receive your inquiry. I assembled the Council for your request, because as you said, yours is an unusual state of affairs. It is not just my decision.”. She nodded as he stood, coming up to walk with her out of his office down the hall to another pair of broad doors, pausing before he pushed them open, giving her a sad look, at how things would only get harder for her to hold this cover if she went this route, but her jaw was set and her eyes were clear of indecision as she gave him a small nod, telling him she was ready for whatever came of this.

In the room were the heads of the heads of the major clans, and the three advisors of the Hokage; fifteen seats sat at table for the Shinobi Council.

In a moment, Sakura could identify the seven heads of their clans sat at the table. She recognized the Yamanaka clan head, Inoichi, with his long blond hair and pupil-less blue eyes, and had periodically seen the Akimichi and Nara clan heads, with their long spiky russet and dark brown hair, red kumadori spiral on his cheeks and three scars across his face, Chouza and Shikaku, when they had come to the Yamanaka flower shop. The Hyuuga clan head was easily recognizable by his pale lilac pupil-less eyes, and the Inuzuka clan head by her brown hair and red fang kumadori on her cheeks, an older version of Hana, with the Aburame clan head by his dark glasses and high-collared jacket that hung down past his fingers and nearly to his knees keeping most of his body hidden. The Uchiha clan head was a harder, older version of Shisui and Itachi, with the same almost-pretty dark hair and eyes.

Four seats remained empty between the heads and the three advisors, who were about Sandaime’s age. From her mother, Sakura had learned that those three seats had been physically empty for a long time. The Senju head, Tsunade, had been nomadic since the death of her younger brother and lover at the end of the Second War just over twenty years previous – the Uzumaki since Kushina’s death in the Kyuubi Attack – the Hatake since the suicide of Sakumo early in the Third War ten years ago – and the Sarutobi had Hiruzen as their head, so as Hokage, he had two votes cast in his favor.

The Council met whenever an issue was brought forth by one of its members to be discussed and decided on, as it had since the days of Shodaime, and that it had been called to decide the fate of ‘Uzumaki Amayasaki’ was telling of the importance that the issue was considered with.

It almost made Sakura want to reveal herself to them, as while she had been aware that this could happen, the fact that it had, was still nerve-wracking. She was sure that if she revealed herself then, that there would be no serious consequences – but she would be watched for a long time, because she would have just proven that she could seriously fool a shinobi village, and there would be the question of what else could she hide if she could do this.

However, if she was suspicious _at all_ to them, beyond the miniscule amount offered to Konoha immigrants, then she would not be returning from this trip, would be sentenced indefinitely to Torture and Interrogation until every single one of her secrets were exposed and she sang like a canary and gave them everything that was asked of her.

Only, she was determined that somebody be there for Naruto, that somebody stick up for him against the adults and ninja – and it was clear that there were only a few that were even just apathetic towards Naruto, and none she could identify as caring enough to stand up for him against not just the civilians badmouthing him, not just the civilians that hurt him, not just the shinobi who turn a blind eye to his pain, but the Council who would rather see him dead and gone. No one would pay her more than a few moments of time to consider _her_ , a pink-haired _civilian child_ in many of their eyes, even an obstacle of more than a few moments, and while that made something in her rage and roar that she be not just so heavily underestimated, but be unable to be enough to protect Naruto just by virtue of being herself, she had to _change_ to be _enough_. She knew that in the future, that such an underestimation as they were giving her would be in her best interests, would serve her well, because no one would think her a threat until it was far too late, but right now, when she had someone who needed her to intimidate and keep others in line, she needed to be _intimidating_.

Hence Amayasaki.

Sakura was careful to not fidget when they all looked at her, opening her stance some to give her the appearance of confidence, knowing that she couldn’t look anything other than confident.

Sandaime took his spot as Hokage at the head of the table while she remained standing not far from the foot of the table, speaking up after a moment, “I called you all here because I would ask that you allow Uzumaki Amayasaki here to become a kunoichi of Konoha.”.

Instead of a flurry of talk, about her being a supposed Uzumaki come out of the woodwork, many of them looked at her closer, and she could know which ones had known Kushina well by how their eyes lingered on her face, while the three advisors’ eyes lingered on her sharp teeth and how she dressed in the manner of many Kiri immigrants.

The Inuzuka sniffed loudly in her direction, “Where’s she from Sandaime-sama?”, the big black dog with white undersides missing his left ear and an eyepatch over his right eye at her side moving from where he sat at the woman’s side to sniff at her as well, to sneeze softly at the undercurrent of sea salt in her scent. Something that Sakura had worked hard on – to add that further level of distinction between Sakura and Amayasaki by tying in a scent, something that Sakura did not have naturally and would be signature of Amayasaki.

Sandaime watched how Sakura didn’t move as the dog sniffed at her leg, not even at the sneeze, even seemed to relax minutely at it, “Her mother was from Uzushiogakure, and her father possibly from Amegakure. With all the upheaval there in the last decade, her mother wandered until she was caught in Kiri during the bloodline purges. Uzumaki-san, as her mother had heard of Kushina-chan and had been headed our way to seek asylum when she died, continued to make her way here after her mother’s death.”.

Inoichi’s eyes were sharp as he looked at her, “That was six years ago, Sandaime-sama,”, but not unkind because he had realized that she would have just been a child then, and that she’d made it at all, was impressive, only he had to be suspicious. He couldn’t risk not being suspicious.

Sakura scratched at the side of her face, careful of her own nails to not make herself bleed, “I was hidin’ like kaa-chan was tellin’ me when shit went down in Kiri. Didn’ know she was dead until I snuck back into Kiri, and couldn’ find her chakra. Hid in the village there for a few weeks until things died down enough to slip away unnoticed. Then got lost; Kaa-chan’s directions were a bit out of date with many of her landmarks changed or missin’ because of the war. Walked a lot of the countryside between here and there before I got close enough for a caravan of merchants headed out here to cross my path. Heard about Naru-boi not long after I got here, recognized he was _family_. Decided if he wanted to be Hokage, that I should have his back.”.

She knew that her story would be enough at her age to get at least the benefit of the doubt, and that if she’d been able to provide all the details, more red flags would have gone up than just this vague story would have given. She also knew as an ‘Uzumaki’, that the Council wouldn’t be able to resist having her in the village, and that alone could at least earn her citizenship. The detail about sensing ‘her mother’s’ chakra in Kiri though, that would be dangling a sensory ability, something not too common, in front of them, and Sakura knew that they wouldn’t be able to pass that up.

She could see amongst the clan heads who was considering, and who was wary – who’d take her, risks and all, just to have that skill in their ranks; she could see that the three advisors were eyeing her intently, particularly the older man with bandages over one eye. Her skin crawled under his gaze, something about him sending warning bells off in her head that this was not a man she wanted the attention of, but she was careful to not reveal that as she openly watched the eleven.

Shikaku spoke up after a moment, “Uzumaki-san, for security reasons, would you submit to a session with somebody from T&I?”, his eyes sharp but not hostile, as something about her was familiar, and he couldn’t place it. Something about her was telling him that she was an ally, that she meant no harm to his as long as he meant no harm to hers, and he would investigate why, but until then, even if he didn’t think she was an enemy spy, she had admitted to being a foreigner, and he had his son’s safety to think about.

Sakura knew he meant to check her story. She almost smiled at how she’d managed to fall into the sweet spot of suspicion; not so suspicious as to give herself away, but just suspicious enough that a lack of suspicion didn’t raise red flags all on its own. Instead, she gave a small nod, letting a little of her nerves show so that she appeared untrained and unnerved at the prospect of visiting something called _Torture and Interrogation_ , but not so much as to look like she was hiding something.

She was more unnerved by how the one-eyed old man was looking at her than a visit to T&I did.

Sakura made a mental note to look into the man, to find out who he was, why he was a part of the Council as one of Sandaime’s advisors, and what power he had to be there. Something about him made the hair on the back of her neck stand up, and she was sure she was seeing a ruthless, calculating gleam in his eye as he looked her over, as if already calculating how much use she would be to him; he was a man to warily watch, and she would do her best to sleep with one eye open and never forget that he was watching.

After all, ninja had a short life expectancy, and those that made it past their thirties, made it as old as Sandaime and his three advisors, they were cunning and wily; far more dangerous than younger ninja just because they had seen and survived so much, knew all the tricks. They may have been past their prime in the field, but a ninja’s main asset was more than their body, but their _mind_ as everything they knew.

She consented to a trip to T&I, and Inoichi stood, gesturing for her to lead the way out of the room, fully aware that they would discuss whether it was a good idea or not to have her in their ranks when the man returned after delivering her to T&I. She had a feeling that she would either be admitted to the Academy, or made a genin under the close watch of someone, after this visit.

Inoichi led her back down the Tower, before going in the opposite direction of the entrance once on the bottom floor, to where a pair of stairs descended beneath the ground. Waiting there in the doorframe, was a big man, in a large dark trench-coat, with deep scars crisscrossing over his face and a black bandana on his head. Inoichi frowned faintly at him, “These are just questions, Ibiki, not an interrogation. Don’t break her; she’s just a kid.”, making the other man grin widely, a truly fearsome sight, and enough to make Sakura stiffen slightly at how _feral_ he looked, “You would be saying something different if you thought her a trained kunoichi, Inoichi.”.

He turned that smile on her, about to say something after having seen her stiffen at the sight, and she couldn’t help the urge to grin right back at him with her sharp teeth, sensing a kindred spirit in the other man in that he was just as dedicated as she was to protect what was important to them. She couldn’t see it because he hid it well, but he was a little surprised at her attitude as there were battle-hardened shinobi twice her supposed age who couldn’t return his smile. She bowed slightly then, her eyes never leaving him as her smile stayed on her face, “Uzumaki Amayasaki, please take good care of me,”.

He laughed at that, “I like your spunk kid,”, before turning to the side to let her go down the stairs a little ahead of him, “Come on,”.

Inoichi watched them go, suspecting that depending on how she reacted during this little interview, she would find a career in T&I in a few years, because already, Ibiki liked her. He’d worked with the man on-and-off for nearly a decade and the man still didn’t like him that much, not that he really wanted to be friends with the man, as it took a special type to work for long in that department and Ibiki was just the right amount of unhinged and sadistic to do so, and already, Ibiki liked that girl more than nearly anyone else just for being able to smile back at him.

Once out of sight of the two, Inoichi let a small shiver of fear go down his spine at the idea of the man possibly gaining a protégé. He had mixed feelings then, on whether or not he wanted for Amayasaki to pass the interview, because she was just so _young_ to be in the darkness of their line of work, and that was where she would end up if she was half as fearless as she appeared to be.

Sakura didn’t go more than a step away from the bottom of the steps before she waited for Ibiki, throwing out her senses for whatever chakra was in this part of the building as she put her back to a wall as he passed, then walked at his side. She could feel his eyes on her, at how he’d noticed her keep her back from him as much as possible, a smirk twisting his lips at her instincts to not expose herself so to him, “So kid, what earned you a visit with me?”.

She raised an eyebrow at him as if to say _really-like-you-don’t-know_ with as much deadpan sarcasm as she could inject into the motion, making him chuckle for a moment, amused by her spunk, while she followed half-a-beat behind him as she had no idea where she was going down here, “I wished to become not just a citizen of Konohagakure, but to be a kunoichi as well. The Council requested I have a visit with you in response.”, her attitude confident, _almost_ cocky, as if they were old friends catching up over talk of the weather instead of discussing why she’d been escorted down to T &I.

He smirked as he side-eyed her, seeing her pale just slightly when a scream suddenly came from just off to their right, but she just grinned with her sharp teeth not a moment later to belly any unease he might have detected from her being in T&I headquarters, led right into the very depths, “You goin’ to treat me nicer than you treatin’ him, Ibiki-san?”. His smirk widened at such attitude, liking her spunk because it was entertaining, but the shinobi code tended to squash such attitude, “Depends on your answers to my questions, kid.”, watching how she straightened, threw out her chest some while loosely crossing her arms, acting big at his retort.

Ibiki knew that she wasn’t an enemy; Sandaime had told him about a pre-genin – wouldn’t give him her name so that he didn’t try and recruit her before she even got her hitai-ate – who was determined to be there for the Uzumaki boy, and felt like she’d had to be somebody else to do so. He didn’t fault her for such logic, as he knew she was right considering how much the village just did _not_ like the boy, even admired her guts on doing so.

He wouldn’t _try_ to break her, not like Inoichi feared; he just wanted to see how far she had planned this whole thing out. After all, no child training to be a shinobi, who planned to play as coming out of the woodwork to a clan, particularly to such well-respected clan like the Uzumaki, who went so far as to give herself foreign origins to explain her sudden appearance, wouldn’t have created a whole persona to back up such a story, wouldn’t have created a whole backstory with that persona.

He also was curious to how thought out and developed this persona and backstory would be.

Sakura had spent the better part of a year with Naruto, and saw how acting big was a fallback mechanism for him, and thought that somebody who’d been alone like Amayasaki would have been, made imitating Naruto a good start; she cocked her head some, not bothering to hide how she eyed him, “What sorta questions yah goin’ ta be askin’? I canna tell ya who the hell kaa-chan hooked up with to have me, so don’ be askin’ questions I can’ answer on virtue of not knowin’ myself.”.

His smirk widened at her behavior, at how she was playing this game, at how she’d nailed that Uzumaki brashness that he remembered from Kushina and saw in her brat, before he held open a door, “Kid, I’m not asking for things you wouldn’t know, I’m asking where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing.”, gesturing for her to go in. He watched how she walked right in, managing to skirt him without exposing her back but not being too obvious about it, to sit in one of the chairs right away, pushing back from the table to settle almost against the far wall, eyes locked on him with an uncanny focus.

Ibiki wondered which pre-genin this was, having already discarded any of the major clan because he had his suspicions that she’d chosen Uzumaki not just because it would have been the brat’s clan, but because it had the power her own name would have never wielded on her best day, as he took his own seat, watching her closely for any tells, “So kid, you said your name was?”.

Sakura gave him a flat look, “Uzumaki Amayasaki,”, knowing he was trying to see if she would have to think or would even slip up this early on, making sure that _exactly_ how _un_ impressed she was with such a tactic was clear, returning the favor, “What’s your name?”.

He smirked, “Morino Ibiki, head of Torture and Interrogation,”, waiting to see if she would blanch or flinch like some of his own (veteran) countrymen at having his full attention, but she merely grinned, not a flicker of fear in her frame, “Nice to meat ya, Morino-san,”. He wondered if her lack of fear was from believing that strongly about her cover, if it was because she was a Konoha citizen and didn’t think he would harm her if her cover failed, or if she just didn’t have any fear, “Where were you born Uzumaki-san?”. She shrugged, “Not a clue. Kaa-chan wondered around a lot. Probably somewhere in Ame though, we were there until kaa-chan’s clan ties with Konoha made it too dangerous after the Second War.”, careful to keep her body loose and relaxed.

He started in; “When did you leave Ame?”

“Roughly seven years ago.”

“Where did you go?”

“Kaa-chan liked bein’ by the water, so we moved along the coast or other bodies of water. After a while, we ended up in Nami.”

“How long were you there?”

“Not long, couple of months at most. Kaa-chan was lookin’ for a merchant caravan headed o Hi no Kuni.”

“Clearly she didn’t succeed. Where did you go next?”

“Kiri. I think kaa-chan was just tryin’ to get a more solid feel of the tensions runnin’ amok, to know where it was safe to hide out until the smoke cleared. Because I think she’d figured that her directions weren’ good anymore, and she needed a guide through Kuni no Ho but no one was willin’ to be one then.”

“When was that?”

“A few months before the bloodline purges. She died in them, and I left shortly after.”

“That was six years ago. Where were you between then and now?”

“In the Hi no Kuni countryside. Kaa-chan had heard about Kushina-sama’s exploits as a tokubetsu jounin and had been intendin’ to come here before, so Konoha was my goal. I got a bit lost though. Landmarks were changin’ and renamed after the war, if not outright missin’. Kaa-chan’s directions apparently have been out of date since before Kushina-sama came here ‘cause no one knew of some of them when I asked.”

“Where were you during the Third War?”

“Hidin’ amon’ the civilians. I was little, don’ know much more ‘cause kaa-chan kept me away from as much of the fightin’ as she could.”

“How’d you get to Konoha finally?”

“Found another merchant caravan. They just happened to be headed here.”.

After the basic questions, Ibiki started into more specifics, asking for details of places and when.

Sakura hadn’t been to any of these places, but her mother had been to several, and her merchant informants gleefully told her about a lot of Kuni no Ho’s countryside, while Asuma had told her about Kiri and Ame, or had found people for her to ask. She knew that if he _really_ suspected her to be lying, or asked for too much more detail, that her lies would be found out, but she’d managed enough research to at least make it believable if it wasn’t poked and prodded too heavily.

Ibiki already knew she was lying – by virtue of the Sandaime warning him beforehand – but he had to commend that if he hadn’t, that he might have almost believed her. He would have believed her enough to call in a Yamanaka to double-check to see if she was hiding anything.

When Sandaime had told him that she was a pre-genin, he thought she was an older one, and thus he’d been treating this like a test of her espionage skills, a test of how she would hold up under the scrutiny of a professional. With how impressed he was, he’d been giving her subtle details that would strengthen her cover, as well as give her a better gist of what a cover persona should have to be successful. That she quickly absorbed those details and managed to incorporate them to better layer her lies, made his lips quirk up in an almost-smile at her skill.

He would keep an eye on the next couple of years of Academy graduates, to see if he could ferret out which of them was this Amayasaki, so he could see if she was just suited to Inoichi’s division with her intelligence-gathering or could be one of his. He wasn’t a monster though, he would wait until she was a little older before he tested his little theory about that.

And even if he’d heard about the pink-haired girl running around with the Uzumaki brat, and knew of child prodigies like Hatake and the Uchiha heir who could have pulled this off at young ages, such geniuses were once-in-a-generation, and he thought he had a few more years before he would be on the watch for another.

Sakura walked out of T&I a couple of hours later, acting a little pale and shaky for anyone watching, but grinning on the inside, as she was fairly confident that she had succeeded to, if not _fool_ Ibiki, at least appear harmless to him. As she had left the Tower, she’d turned around to the ANBU that she’d been able to sense lingering all these hours for her, and saluted him, before running off to where she could just catch a glimpse of short blonde hair out of the corner of her eye, “NARUTO!”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is addictive. Seeing people read my work, and like it. The feeling is just, addicting. This is the last for at least a week (so I can work on chapter nine) after uploading three chapters in a day – I would have made it four in a day if this chapter hadn’t been longer than the others so far and rereading it took a little long.  
> Side note: 58 pages; That’s how long the first four chapters are in Word.


	5. Whirlpool Hidden by Leaves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Village may be gone, but its Spirit remains when even one of its people remain.  
> Upon which there are two Uzumaki in Konoha, and the Spirit of Uzu proves to be just as in-dominatable as its namesake while Sakura begins to remind Konoha why the Uzumaki are to be respected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I Kishimoto? No. Not now and not for eternity, so Naruto is not mine.
> 
> Unbetaed.  
> 5-30-17

That night, Sakura hadn’t dismissed her clone like she normally would, because if she hadn’t been watched all that closely before _for just appearing to be an Uzumaki_ , she certainly would now. Amayasaki could no longer be called forth at her whim, but had to exist as an entirely self-sufficient person on her own if she wanted to make this farce believable.

The thing was, that as a clone, Amayasaki (or the clone masquerading as Sakura,) was insubstantial, and through she did have half of Sakura’s chakra, she had no force behind her, weighing next to thing as a being made of chakra, and if hit, would instantly dissipate. She also had half her rate of regenerating chakra on her own, being a clone. These factors would reveal her quickly if found out. As such, Sakura had been considering other types of clones that weren’t insubstantial, that could take a hit, but other clones involved manipulating an element, something that she hadn’t even _thought_ of being able to do for a while yet, nor had figured out how to do now, not to mention that it took a little more chakra then she could spare in making them, and as a basic, fundamental part of the make-up of a clone, they were _supposed to_ dissipate after a hit.

It meant that either she had to reinvent a clone from chakra, to only dissipate after running out of allotted chakra, or figure out a way to fortify a clone to survive a hit. Working on her speed to avoid getting hit in the first place was a given, as well as learning to quickly create another clone to replace them before the moment of dissipation as part of a substitution.

Sakura had ideas on how to fortify a clone, to keep it in place until the very moment of death, but nothing that she could apply _quite_ yet. She knew she was missing a key component in stabilizing the seal, and intended to go through Jiraiya-sama’s notes again, to see if she just had further manipulate an existing seal, or if she had to essentially make a new one modeled after the old.

It was what she had worked on for four days straight, leaving the Sakura-clone to go about the mundane days of being demure and playing with Ino, to go over Jiraiya-sama’s notes, to make her own notes, then scour that B-rank scroll on fuuinjutsu that she’d snagged months ago that had the blood splatters on it, deciding that her base knowledge was minimally high enough to get the gist of what she needed to understand what was being detailed in the scroll. By the end of the fourth day, she was 85% sure that she had a working seal for stabilizing a clone, with the other 15% sure that the clone would instead explode upon being hit.

Honestly, she preferred the first option, but she could work with the second option as it would allow her to quickly create another clone, appear to swap so that the exploding one stayed in the fight before denotating, and just meant that before any fight started, that making a set of clones was the first order of business so that at any one time, there was at least one Amayasaki present. And even if she did succeed in making this seal, she was going to look further into how to make a clone explode and add that little tidbit into her seal. Exploding clones were _cool_.

She was even 90% sure that she already knew how to do so, as she’d snagged an exploding tag from among Asuma’s supplies months ago, and to test a theory of whether it was really 85% sure that her clone would explode, she’d modified the exploding tag, to Naruto’s delight, and got a _big_ boom out of it when she set it off. After she did figure out the exploding bit, she was going to teach the theory to Naruto, because he _loved_ explosions, but only _after_ he had a little more control so that his wealth of chakra didn’t make a pea-sized explosion into _leveling-a-city-block_ explosion.

Five days after Amayasaki met the Council, an ANBU, Hound, showed up where she was practicing with Naruto throwing a pair of kunai as she also fiddled with her fortifying seal, practicing drawing it for her to manage quickly and concisely with minimal concentration on the task, with summons from Sandaime. Holding up a hand in a gesture of _just-one-moment_ to Hound, grey-blue eyes narrowing at where she could see that Naruto had managed to nearly hit a bullseye on the bordering innermost ring, and thus winning their competition at the last round, the boy looking very smug at his achievement after getting closer and closer the last ten tries, she set aside her calligraphy practice to pick up her kunai, and threw it at their target.

Her smile was sharp, but not mean, as she raised an eyebrow at Naruto in a silent _who-is-the-master-here-oh-yeah-me_ when she managed to get just inside the innermost ring and thus won. He pouted and whined, “Saki-chan~ You promised that I would pick lunch if I won! Winning at the last moment isn’t fair!”, and she smirked as she retrieved her kunai, “Does too count Naru-chan. I wasn’ payin’ all that much attention to most of my throws, you should have taken advantage. Not like I won’ pick somethin’ you like, yah bottomless pit.”, stashing it once more in the seal on her wrist.

Naruto’s pout softened, “But you picking, means you pay.”, crossing his arms unhappily as she stashed her calligraphy brush, stone and ink, and practice scroll in the cream-colored pouch on her right hip that Asuma had given her the last time he’d seen her. She shrugged, having no intention of ever _letting_ him win one of these little competitions when he didn’t have the funds to spare, particularly when she had at least a _little_ coin, unlike him, until at least when his skill beat out her own, “Them the rules, Naru-chan.”.

He roughly pulled out his kunai from the target, “They suck.”, before he started to practice some more, intending to not stop until he could confidentially hit the bullseye.

With Naruto distracted, Sakura followed Hound away from the clearing, “Sandaime-sama requests your presence Uzumaki-san,”, before he disappeared in a small poof of smoke.

Sakura’s eye twitched for a moment after he was gone, mentally deciding that she would be harassing Hatake soon, for just leaving her there instead of taking her with. She might even, the next time Hatake was out of the village, go through his apartment and shift everything just a little to the left to screw with his head.

The idea got increasingly more tempting as she walked through the village and had to listen to the whispers about Naruto, mentally marking those that went too far in her opinion, as being future targets of pranks.

Walking was worth it though when she managed to catch a glimpse out of the corner of her eye of an ANBU, one wearing a different mask than Hound, in that the colors for the kumadori were darker. She was careful to not show that she had seen, but she made a mental split of the ANBU, because she’d caught a glimpse or two of the ANBU that watched over Naruto, and _most_ wore the brighter colors, but there had been some with the darker colors. It gave her suspicions that there was a second fraction among the NABU. It made her resolved to stay as much as possible under the radar when it came to that second group in particular, unless _absolutely_ necessary.

Sakura greeted Sandaime with a small but respectful bow, “Sandaime-sama,”, and stood not far from the door as she awaited news of the Council’s decision for Amayasaki, “Uzumaki-san, I have good news for you.”. He gestured for her to sit in front of him, “The Council has decided to grant not just your request to become a citizen, but to become a kunoichi of Konoha. However, due to your age, there was resistance to put you in the Academy unless a certain complete lack of proficiency existed. Which you did not.”, turning to look out at the village some, smiling a little when he saw Naruto running through the village with his cheeks stuffed full of food, “So, instead, a jounin will be assigned to you, to test your current knowledge and to build upon it so that you _are_ genin-level; a tutor essentially. After which, they will act like your jounin sensei in most ways.”.

Sakura glanced over Sandaime’s shoulder and saw Naruto as well, sighing a little, “That brat, I told him I would buy us lunch.”, before she looked back at Sandaime, “Who is the jounin?”.

There was considering look on his face as he spoke, having had several candidates from among his shinobi that he had been thinking of assigning her to, “Shiranui Genma, and he’s a tokubetsu jounin.”.

She raised an eyebrow, recognizing the name from Hatake’s pug, but knowing next to nothing about him, waiting to see if Sandaime would elaborate. She didn’t ask when she would get a hitai-ate, knowing that she hadn’t earned it yet.

He didn’t; After a moment, he returned his attention to the copious amounts of paperwork on his desk.

Sakura’s lips thinned and she narrowed her eyes at him, but she wasn’t too upset; she knew he was giving her his silent approval to find out as much as she could about Genma before she was approached by Genma on Sandaime’s orders, to prove to the man that she was good enough to be a genin.

She left Sandaime, but didn’t leave the building, making towards the mission room on the floor below, keeping her ears sharp for any mention of ‘Shiranui Genma’ to identify him. She managed to catch a glimpse of him even; he was tall, but not as tall as Hound, with oak brown short hair, two longer bangs framing his face, wearing his hitai-ate on a bandana tied onto his head, with pale blue-grey eyes, and usually chewing on a senbon.

It took a couple of days for her information network to give her anything on Genma, while she discretely tailed him with Naruto.

She used that time to test her seal on a clone, and found that it worked, to a degree. It _did_ explode, but a full thirty seconds later as it charged the chakra that made the clone into a bomb.

She found out that he’d graduated the Academy in the later years of the 3rd War, put on a genin team with Ebisu and Maito Gai, with his current mission-partner being Namiashi Raidou. That he frequented the same dango stands as a Mitarashi Anko. That following the Kyuubi Attack, he’d taken the new genin Umino Iruka under his wing and mentored the slightly younger shinobi. That he was a massive flirt, but rarely went home with anyone even when they were receptive to it.

She approached him at a dango stand, hopping onto the stool next to him and asking for whatever he was having, knowing that she’d just gotten his attention in a major way. He was quiet for a moment and she knew that he was looking her over closely, “So you’re the Uzumaki everyone’s been talking about.”.

Sakura smirked, pleased that word about her was getting around the village because that was all the warning she would give before she tore whoever harassed Naruto next a new one, but didn’t look at him until she’d paid for her dango and taken a bite, lifting an eyebrow at him, “Are you sure they mean _me_ , not Naru-chan? And they all good things, I hope?”.

He snorted, “Yeah, they definitely meant _you_. The word was that you look just like Kushina-hime.”, before glancing at how she was holding her dango like a calligraphy brush, “What’s your business in Konoha, Amayasaki-san?”.

She smirked wider, showing off her sharp teeth in a fearless manner, “Naruto is my business,”, wordlessly communicating that she was there to protect Naruto against _all_ threats to his wellbeing.

Genma raised his eyebrow a little, eyes narrowed at her and her blunt statement, “What do you intend to do?”, and she shrugged a little, leaning back against the counter, “Naruto wants to be Hokage. I inten’ to be his sword and shield.”, taking another bite of her dango, as if she hadn’t just stated that she was pledging fealty to Naruto above all else.

He tapped his finished dango stick against his hitai-ate pointedly, “You’re not a Konoha shinobi.”, and her grin sharpened into something fierce, “Yet. The Council voted to make me one if I pass the graduation exam, and am put under the tutelage of a veteran Konoha shinobi.”.

His eyes narrowed to slits, “Who?”, having a sinking suspicion on who already by her presence like this, and she grinned at him, all sharp teeth and calculating eyes, “You.”.

Sakura half-expected him to abruptly leave in a cloud of chakra smoke – as she was sure Hatake would have if this was him – or just leave period, when he just flatly looked at her, almost uncomprehendingly, if not for the small hint of panic she could see, “No.”.

She shrugged, figuring that he would come find her when he accepted the inevitable, or Sandaime made him, reaching over to grab his remaining dango stick, picked up her own remaining sticks, and left, glancing back at him over her shoulder, “Ask Sandaime-sama,”, heading off to where she could distantly feel Naruto’s chakra with the intention of splitting the remaining dango because she was nearly sure that he hadn’t yet eaten today other than his hit-and-run from a stall.

~

Asuma was in town that evening, back from an easy escort mission, and Sakura ambushed him outside his apartment building as Amayasaki, “Sarutobi-san!”.

He blinked tiredly at her for a moment, taking a few seconds to process that Sakura had come as Amayasaki, then smiled softly, “Uzumaki-san, it’s been a while.”.

She bounced on her toes a little, “Sarutobi-san, would you like to join me for a meal?”, eager to tell him about her success.

He held up a hand, “Just give me a second, let me put away my travel pack, then yes, let’s eat.”, disappearing inside the building to do just that for a few minutes.

Sakura patiently waited, knowing he had to be tired, but he’d been out of town for the last couple of weeks so she’d been unable to inform him until now about what she’d managed, and considering how often he was being sent on missions, she wasn’t sure when the next time she could catch him was. The fact was, was that she was very proud for having managed to get Amayasaki citizenship with the possibility of becoming a shinobi of Konoha so soon, and wanted to tell someone who’d had a hand in making this so. She also wanted to try and get a little more information about Genma, from Asuma, because it could mean the difference between fooling him and being found out if he’d been somewhere she’d said she’d been and he knew details that she was supposed to know but didn’t.

The fact that she had missed him, had worried about his safety, was unspoken, but very clear – particularly with how her eyes had flicked over him, looking for wounds, before having settled on his face with a broad smile, and that she very much wanted to hug him and cling, but knew that tired shinobi were to be approached carefully and cautiously unless she wanted to bleed and bruise, intending to come as close as she dared when he came back.

The moment he was out of his apartment building, she was right there at his side, and he smiled fondly at her, pleased to see that she cared about him, all but gluing herself to his side as he slowly ambled off towards a tempura stand. He’d yet to uncover why after her aunt and uncle had taken her in, why she’d made only rare appearances as herself to see him, but he was playing along because he could see the mischief in her so like her mother, that told him that she was doing such a thing for multiple reasons, one of which was that she was playing a long game of underestimation and wanted to make a big impact when it was time to reveal something. He just wanted to be there when she decided the game was over, so he could see people’s faces when she revealed how much she was like her mother.

After they ordered their food, she eagerly told him that the Council had made her a probationary genin under the supervision of Genma.

Asuma looked at her sharply then, knowing that to get to that point, she’d have to have gotten approved by the Council and that more than likely had meant a visit with T&I, and he looked for shadows in her eyes, looked for something that said that someone had pushed too hard and she was just hiding it. If someone had, he might have had a visit with whoever talked with her, because it didn’t matter what game she was playing, she was Ren’s daughter and he would protect her. Yet, all he could see was how her eyes sparkled with victory, bright and vibrant, and how wide her smile was, even if it was sharp as she looked over his shoulder for just a second.

He raised an eyebrow at her sharp smile, and her eyes outright glittered with triumph as she told him that she might have been poking at Kakashi by breaking into his apartment and leaving him things, and his ninken approved, and he’s just spotted her with him after she’d left a note basically saying ‘prove it was me’.

He found himself slumping in his seat at that, just knowing that Kakashi would ambush him the moment his guard was down and would demand information about Amayasaki – and knew that she had done this to make the cover harder to uncover.

Sakura just grinned wider and stole the rest of his tempura.

Then she ran off when she caught a glimpse of Genma, off to stalk the man until he acknowledged that he was basically her private sensei.

~

Luckily, Genma seemed to give into the inevitable after a few more weeks of stalking.

Mostly because he’d seemed to be at wit’s end with seeing a flash of red hair out of the corner of his eye wherever he went in the village (and Sandaime had taken him off out-of-village missions while she was to be under his supervision as a quasi-pre-genin), but Sakura still counted it as a victory. Particularly after she’d made sure to linger near Hatake just long enough for him to realize she was near, and for him to follow after her to get his answers on whether or not she was breaking into his apartment, only to see Genma, _eight different times_.

She was deeply amused by how Hatake would watch Genma with the kind of suspicion that said he thought he’d done something and was trying to prove it.

Eventually, she had known Genma would have to acknowledge her if only to tell her to stop harassing Hatake, upon which it would just seem to prove to Hatake that Genma had had something to do with her breaking in.

 She figured that right there was at least a start to expand the man’s off-and-on socialization beyond Cat, Rat, Asuma, and Gai, because she would not be leaving Hatake to himself, and thus the man would go and complain to Genma about her.

However, just because she’d made a prediction about _why_ Genma would acknowledge her, it didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying when it had happened.

There was only a month left before the Academy started, and Naruto was _very_ excited as it had finally sunk in that _yes, they were definitely going to the Academy, no take-backsies_ , and was thus full of energy. Sakura had taken to challenging him to a race to expend some of that _endless, never-_ ceasing energy – and because it was building up her stamina, one of her weakest points of skill – by picking a point of the village as the finish line, setting themselves up at the opposite side of the village, and setting four goals to work on some skills that would be similar to what some of their future missions would be – this time: identify two spots ideal for trap-setting; locate two genin, four chuunin, and three jounin (bonus points for identifying an ANBU); find and escort the cat with a ribbon around its neck to a hiding place; and run alpha-delta evasion tactics (zig-zag left, right, back, up, and pull a substitution three times in rapid succession, before darting forward without pause for five minutes) – and to get to the set location within two hours.

Sakura had just identified _three_ spots ideal for setting traps (one for that chuunin who’d called Naruto a monster two weeks earlier; one for a tag-and-dash as Sakura for Shisui, because his mood always seemed to lighten after their playing around; and to hide herself for when she next followed the two elderly advisors to Sandaime), had spotted three chuunin, one jounin and both genin, and snatched the cat out from under Naruto’s nose, when Genma had stepped directly in front of her with a smirk curling around the senbon in his mouth, “I had heard that there had been blonde and red blurs seen carrying Tora off for the last week or so, and making genin teams really work to capture the cat, and realized it must have been you and the other Uzumaki.”.

Her eyes had narrowed at him, about to pull a substitution with a nearby bird, when he’d turned to the side so that she could pass him by and leave if she wanted, “So, I decided, your first mission as a genin of Konoha was going to be the D-rank: Capture and Retrieve Tora, because you might as well as be paid for finding the cat.”.

It took but a blink for her to realize that he’d finally caved to the inevitable and was ready to admit that Sandaime had assigned her to him as his student, before she’d grinned wide with sharp teeth, “’bout time, Shiranui-san,”. His eyes narrowed at her for that, realizing then that she’d been playing him here, having figured out that to capture the cat was a mission for genin and making sure to be seen to be doing so, before chuckling softly, as he approved of her tactics as it showed initiative in underhanded tactics to get her goal. Even if he wasn’t very pleased to have been outplayed by essentially a genin.

Sakura couldn’t wait until he found out that she hadn’t even entered the Academy yet when she’d done this, because it was going to be _epic_ to see his dismay at being tricked by a ‘civilian’ child.

Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she eyed him for a second, before she was darting forward, climbing up his side to sit on his shoulders, Tora cradled to her chest.

Genma sighed as he started walking, feeling a little awkward to be carrying what he thought to be a twelve-year-old girl on his shoulders, not needing any rumors that he liked little girls that would likely spring up because of this, “Amayasaki-san? Is there a reason why you did that?”.

Sakura grinned wider as she looked around, enjoying the higher vantage point, “You’re taller, I wanted to see what it was like with my head in the clouds. I’ve done this for Naru-boi and he always acts so dramatic, like the air’s so thin up here.”, petting at the cat to keep her calm. His eyebrow twitched at her blasé answer, “So is the air thin up there?”, and she laid Tora on his head, letting the cat snuggle into the bandana on his head, kneading close to where his hairline was beneath it, “Nope! But I knew that; I’ve climbed to the roof adjacent to the Hokage Tower, which is _way_ higher than this.”.

His eyebrow did another twitch, and sensing the impending doom, Sakura grabbed Tora, sticking her down the front of her shirt, and jumped down, “You took out a D-rank for me Shiranui-san?”, to walk by his side. He glanced over at her, “Yeah, Sandaime-sama assigned you to me, and D-ranks allow me time to judge how capable you are,”, and noted that he could just vaguely sense the sparks of chakra she let fly off her fingertips as she pet at the cat, instinctively calming the cat in such a way that spoke not just of a fine control as to not overwhelm the cat’s own chakra system but of an instinctive understanding that suggested she could very easily become a medic if given training.

The way she grinned with her sharp teeth on display told him she wouldn’t be content waiting for the wounded to come to her, “Does this mean I get to call you Genma-sensei?”, and he huffed softly, disgruntled, “Nah, way to make me feel _old_ , kid,”, sticking his hands in his pockets as he led the way to the mission room, “Senpai is good.”.

She snickered after a moment, “Genma-senpai, you goin’ to be callin’ me kohai?”, having tried to imagine him doing so and finding that such a scene was rather amusing, particularly because he had no clue how much younger she really was compared to him and that he was almost old enough to be her father considering he had fifteen years on her, and he narrowed his eyes at her, not knowing why she was amused but knowing it was at his expense, “You’re very cheeky, Kid.”. Her eyes smirked up at him as she grinned wide, “I’m an Uzumaki.”, before her eyes narrowed slightly at being called ‘Kid’ again, “Don’t call me Kid, unless you want me to call you Tou-san.”, watching as he blanched a little, eyes flicking around for anyone who could have heard that, his hand coming up to cover her mouth before she could say it again, “Shhhh! Don’t give those gossip-mongers ideas!”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Amayasaki has entered the scene.  
> Fun times are ahead; Amayasaki is everything aggressive about Sakura, blatantly so. Sakura has a goal, and she’ll achieve it no matter the lengths she has to go.  
> After all, (in canon) Sakura has proven to be, if nothing else, loyal. She’s also proven to be willing to go to serious lengths to achieve her goals. What else can be said regarding how dedicated she remains to Team 7, to protecting her boys (even from themselves). She overcomes doubt and a lack of self-worth to approach Tsunade so that she can stand with her boys. She makes a stand against the Oto nin in the chuunin exams even when she knows that she’s heavily outmatched because she has a goal and she’s willing to sacrifice to get there.  
> I just took it (and ran with it), trying to put a bit more depth on a key character trait.


	6. Out in the Sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Sakura visits Suna, and makes a friend. Or two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not Kishimoto.
> 
> Unbetaed.  
> 5-31-17

Sakura turned seven without much fanfare – other than the party her aunt and uncle threw, and she suffered through it (or her clone did, because Naruto had looked like someone had kicked his puppy when she’d told him it was her birthday in a couple of days and she had to spend it with her aunt and uncle, and she’d rather make him happy then work on her diplomatic skills by not stabbing that distant cousin her aunt was trying to match her with). It had been real work to keep her feelings hidden as she’d inspected the vibrant red quoin-style dresses with the white Haruno circle on the back that she’d been given, smiling and politely thanking her aunt.

Naruto had paid for a meal – no matter her protests, he’d had the winning argument that it being her birthday, she shouldn’t have to pay – at Ichiraku’s, while Ino had gifted her with a pair of beautiful metal hair-clips to pin her lengthening hair back with, and promised that the next day that they would have a girl’s day. Asuma had given her a practical gift – a basic shinobi tool-kit of real weapons – even as he promised to take her out for a meal when he got back from his mission.

Genma spent the day making Amayasaki (and Naruto, because he’d stuck like a burr to her side for the day) go through her paces, showing him how she’d been training, then to spar against him so he could gauge her actual skills.

Days after her birthday, and nearly three weeks until the Academy started, her aunt and uncle took a business trip to Suna, and took her with them.

Unfortunately, her aunt and uncle were not stupid (even if she was sure they were willfully oblivious considering Ino and Naruto had similar loud personalities, and at first glance, could be thought to be distant cousins), and knew that while she’d been supposedly keeping away from Naruto, and had for all purposes seemed to have forgotten him, if they left her there in Konoha, she would have just been with Naruto. It didn’t mean that she made things easy for them, playing up her problems with the heat, and being thirsty, and generally being fussy because she _was_ a kid – and because her aunt wasn’t much better – as they traveled.

Sakura enjoyed the five-day trip, in truth. Not that she liked the ridiculous heat for late March, because she was pale and so easily burned, despite her aunt’s attempts to keep her under a parasol at all times, but the weather was something different that she could train in. The environment was very different from Konoha as well, changing from cool shade in familiar tree-filled forests to blistering hot sand dunes.

It was quite the trial to make a clone during the night, even if their escort, a familiar face from her stalking Genma, Namiashi Raidou, turned a blind-eye, set her up with meditation and chakra-strengthening exercises in the distance, before during the sunlit hours, had her running and flinging herself across the sand, practicing sending minute amounts of chakra to her skin to darken it to different shades, and walking on sand while doing taijutsu.

Her mind took avid notes about how Suna took advantage of the environment to make it a natural defense, about how their styles of clothing favored lots of skin-coverage, that various parasols and fans and puppets were common fare here. She was particular fond of the various face-paints that seemed to populate the market-place, mind already working through ideas of how to do various kumadori as to scare some specific people.

If in that first day, she pick-pocketed her aunt to steal a couple of coins as to buy a few things from the market-place, the only one to notice was Namiashi and he seemed to find it amusing. Probably found it less amusing when she made a clone, left it with her aunt and uncle, and went exploring on her own.

Considering the normal coloring of Suna, unlike the occasionally eccentric colors of Konoha, she altered her hair for a pale blonde as to not draw attention with her pink, and went to the early morning market for some dark, bland clothes for underneath her sand-colored cloak as to not stand out because of that red dress. Once she no longer stuck out quite so much, Sakura relaxed a little, and went exploring through the market, buying some of the black kohl and some of the red, and the blue, face-paint, stashing it in the pouch with her calligraphy brush and ink. She was debating the merits of buying one of the children’s puppets for beginner puppeteers, as she would love to learn how to do chakra strings and the puppet would be good practice for that, but first she had to figure out _how_ , when she saw a kid playing in a sandbox all by himself.

He looked to be her age, with vibrant shaggy red hair and black rings around his sea-foam green eyes, and was hugging a toy bear as he manipulated the sand with chakra. The chakra manipulation had been enough to draw her attention, as that was just _cool_ , and she wanted to learn such a thing, but it was the abject loneliness that seemed to hang around him, reminding her so much of Naruto when she’d met him, that she found herself walking over without a second thought.

When he realized that she was approaching him, he froze, wary eyes watching how she made right for his sand-box without hesitation or fear.

Her eyes narrowed slightly at how he seemed to half-brace for being yelled at, and half-shrunk away as if preparing to flee, and distantly made plans to figure out who had made a child fear and _make them pay_ , before she beamed at him, wanting him to see she was nothing that he should fear. At the edge of his sand-box, she bowed deep, palms in clear view on her thighs like her mother had taught her, “Excuse me, would you mind if I played with you?”.

He did a slow blink, and the sand shifted ominously towards her, “You don’t know who I am? You’re not from Suna.”, and she let her hair color shift back for a moment, “No, I’m from Konoha. My aunt and uncle are merchants, and took me along this time to follow up on a trip they did nearly a year ago.”, smiling still. The sand didn’t so much settle down, as it stopped moving towards her in an aggressive manner, looking almost hesitant, “Otou-sama wouldn’t want me to play with foreign kids . . ”. She smiled at him, “We’re allies. We would be fostering cooperation between our two villages.”, trying to make herself look as harmless as possible, “I’m Sakura. What’s your name?”.

He tilted his head a little at her, arms clutching his bear tight, “Gaara.”, and she beamed, “Well, Gaara-kun, can I play with you?”, pleased that he hadn’t blown her off, and far too used to Naruto’s cautious and wary ways towards strangers (even if Naruto tended to force himself in people’s faces to find out their patience towards him) to be annoyed by his hesitance. He was quiet for a moment, just watching her as the sand shifted restlessly beneath him, before he gave a small nod.

She didn’t hesitate to step into the sandbox, amongst the still shifting sand, deciding that he needed a little trust shown to him before he would trust that she just wanted to be friends.

Sakura could sense the faint chakra signature watching them, which she had taken notice of after it spiked slightly in alarm when Gaara’s sand had first started to shift towards her, spike again. She grinned at Gaara, aware that the smile was just a little too sharp to be harmless, but she knew that she should be afraid and she _refused to be_ , “What are you building?”.

Gaara smiled shyly back, “Just shapes.”, not bothered by her sharp smile when he couldn’t sense an ounce of malice in her towards him.

Sakura eyed the sand critically for a moment, “How detailed can you make your sand?”, before placing her palm against where it was crawling up over her calves and sending a light pulse through it. The sand seemed to shiver, doing it’s equivalent of having its hair stand on end, “Fairly. What are you doing Sakura-san?”.

She poked the tendril that rose up between where they were sitting, sending a stronger pulse through it, watching how it fell apart a little, “Seeing if I could help you build.”. Then she smiled widely at him, “Want to pass a wave back and forth Gaara-kun?”, setting her hands down on the sand, and pulsing her chakra so that the grains of sand clung to it, growing larger the further away it went towards him.

He blinked at her, having never seen someone else manage to manipulate sand, and certainly not his sand, before his eyes narrowed in concentration and he raised a hand, the sand wave stopping in its tracks, then went towards her.

Her eyes challenged him as she sent out a stronger pulse of chakra and halted the sand wave before it collapsed on itself, “Having fun Gaara-kun?”.

A small grin twisted his lips, and his eyes were bright, telling her that he was enjoying the challenge.

Before they could continue this little game, a man’s stern voice called out, “Gaara,”, and Gaara immediately dropped his hand, clutching at his bear as his sand shored itself back up around him. Sakura’s eyes narrowed slightly at this attitude, standing up and moving between the man and Gaara, back to her new friend and eyes sharp towards the man.

Sakura blinked for a second at seeing a man with many of Gaara’s facial features, but didn’t let it stop her from obviously looking him up and down, though she stiffened when Gaara’s soft voice answered, “Otou-sama,”. Her eyes widened some when she realized that she was trying to stare down Gaara’s father, but she didn’t back down as she met his gold-flecked brown eyes.

His eyes were cool and assessing as he looked her over, with only a flicker of amusement at how she didn’t back down to him, “Gaara, come,”.

Sakura could hear Gaara quietly stand, and take a few steps forward, but before he could pass her, she gently stopped him with an arm in front of him, eyes locked on his father’s, “Is Gaara-kun in trouble for playing with me?”.

The man had made half a step to continue on his way, sure that his son would soon be at his side in moments, and paused at her words, his gaze almost lazily challenging her on his authority, “Should he be?”.

She raised her chin, eyes flashing defiantly, “No.”, almost daring him to tell her that Gaara couldn’t play with her anymore, and his eyebrows raised slightly in surprise at how she continued to refuse to back down, “Then he isn’t.”. Sakura let her arm fall slowly, eyes refusing to leave the man’s, “Can we play again later?”, who now definitely looked faintly amused at her continued defiance, “Yes, later.”.

Gaara looked at her as he passed, and she smiled reassuringly at him, “See you later, Gaara-kun. I’ll think of another game we can play if you want.”, making a hopeful light come to his eyes, and he nodded softly, “Okay, Sakura-san.”.

The man waved a hand, and a figure appeared at his side, looking a lot like Suna’s version of ANBU, with dark clothing, arms bare to expose three blue wavy swirls on their upper arm, a sand-colored chest plate with shoulder-guards and arm-guards. She stared directly at the porcelain mask with blue kumadori in the sharp design of a lizard, “Lizard, escort . . Sakura-san . . to her lodgings.”, until the ANBU bowed their head and spoke, “Hai, Kazekage-sama,”, revealing who was Gaara’s father, and her eyes snapped to the man.

His eyes were definitely amused as he met her gaze again, before she smiled wide, “I don’t need an escort Kazekage-sama.”, eyes challenging, “I’m taking in your beautiful village instead of sitting in the shade like a demure lady like my aunt wants me to be. I’ll retrieve Namiashi-san if it makes you feel better.”, and he just looked at her. Just looked at this little slip of a child who was fearlessly staring him down, who would challenge him on how he treated his son, and he found his lips quirking up at the corners, reminded of his daughter and her fire, and his wife’s fearlessness.

He waved his ANBU back, so that he could observe her unseen after he left, and she straightened, eyes meeting his, before she bowed deep, “Have a good day Kazekage-sama,”, gave a cheeky wave to Gaara, and ran off into the marketplace. He found himself chuckling as he watched her disappear, turning one eye on his son, who watched her go like he may never see her again, “She’s sure the spirited one, isn’t she?”.

His eyes softened faintly as he watched Gaara nod softly, “She is.”, seeing his son find connections with somebody other than his uncle, even if they were weak and fledgling and with someone not from Suna. He would watch and see where this went, if this could lead to their alliance with Konoha – because he knew she was from Konoha – to being in truth and not just in name, if this could help provide Gaara with a mental stability that Yashmaru was trying to create, or if this would backfire completely.

~

After her chance meeting with the Kazekage, Sakura did make a quick visit back to her lodgings, to poke Namiashi and ask if he would tell her about the alliance between Suna and Konoha in some detail, before disappearing off to explore the village.

It became the habit that in the mornings and evenings she would find Gaara, usually at the sandbox where they had first met, and they would play in the sand there. Most days, a blonde man Gaara called Uncle would come retrieve him, but sometimes, his father would.

After Gaara left, she would flitter around Suna, watching and observing the village – having bought that children’s puppet that first day – and practicing what she knew and what she saw.

Four days in, with two days left before they would be taking their leave from Suna, Sakura went to the Kazekage’s office. She waited until there were no obvious chakra signatures with him – aware that he had ANBU with him just like Sandaime – then knocked on the door, “Who is it?”.

Sakura knew he knew, as she was making no attempt to hide her chakra, “Sakura, Kazekage-sama. May I come in?”.

She could almost hear his soft sigh, “Come in,”, as they both knew why she was there, and it wasn’t a simple request despite all appearances to the contrary. She walked in without pause, closing the door behind her before bowing, “Kazekage-sama,”, before he gestured for her to stand in front of his desk, “What is it, Sakura-san?”.

She smiled, “I wanted to make it clear with you that I intend to remain Gaara-kun’s friend regardless of how the relationship between our villages changes. It will be easier if I have your approval, both as his father and leader, but if you do not, I _will_ find a way.”, smile sharp with promise, “Friends are precious gems to be defended, ‘til the death if needed.”.  Sakura was aware that her comment could be taken as both treason to Konoha and a threat against the Kazekage, but Gaara’s father deserved the blunt truth that she would stand by Gaara, and if this was her way to make it clear to Naruto’s parents that Naruto was just as important to her, no one had to know but herself.

He leaned over his desk, resting his chin on his hands, eyes tinted gold with shadows of black rings around them, “Hm, you truly _are_ a spirited one, aren’t you, Sakura-san?”.

She met his gaze evenly as particles of gold swirled in the air between them, twisting and coiling around her, smile wide and sharp, “You can say that. I prefer _loyal_. My mother would say I’ve inherited the Will of Fire in the truest sense.”.

He chuckled, shaking his head a little at her sheer gall, able to see that one day she would be a name to fear in the Bingo Book, particularly if the safety of those she cared for were ever under attack. He had no doubt that if their villages came to war, that she would cut a bloody swath through anyone who stood between her and those she loved, and would decimate anyone who dared to harm them.

The Kazekage would never admit that if such questions of war were thrown around in the future, that her ferocity would be a factor he would take in for against such a course, just one among many about why even at their best, Suna just did not have the capacity for such a war.

She smiled wider, sharpness gone as she recognized that he would not stand in her way for this as long as she didn’t hurt Gaara, looking a lot like a fox as she cheekily caught some of his gold in her hands, “Tou-sama, do you want to be friends too?”.

He looked at her for a long moment, blinking slowly at her cheeky address, before choosing to ignore it, waving her off as he started back on his paperwork, “Gaara will be in the greenhouse, tending to his cacti. Go bother him.”.

Sakura smiled, eyes twinkling with mischief as she knew that she could wear him down until there was a day he didn’t even blink at being called ‘Tou-sama’ by her, “Don’t work too hard, Tou-sama!”, fleeing before he caught on that she wasn’t going to drop the address.

~

Sakura was beaming, far too happy to contain, as she carried back the cutting of one of Gaara’s cacti on one of her last days in Suna, not being as stealthy as she should have when she returned to her lodgings.

The only thing being, that even being caught returning late in the evening, was that they thought that she had just been sneaking out in the evenings, snuck out that evening, and not that she’d been leaving a clone for them. It didn’t mean that they were beyond upset with her, not giving her more than two seconds to say that she’d made a friend, before they were trying to ban her from seeing Gaara again.

She felt bad for Namiashi, who was awkwardly watching their little fight, as they yelled at her for still being friends with Naruto, for going out of her way to befriend a foreign citizen, and tried to take her cactus.

Her eyes had narrowed and her lips had thinned, forcing herself to not say the million and one things that had wanted to escape her, to not rant right back at them for another person treating her friends like they were monsters. When her aunt had reached for her cactus, she’d leaned back away from her, going a deadly type of still as she debated whether or not it was worth it to engage her aunt physically if she continued to push this, and Namiashi stepped in.

He’d spoken calming words that she couldn’t listen to over the blood rushing in her ears, screeching that _no one_ treated hers like that, and made her aunt back down, made her uncle go quiet with disapproval but he didn’t try to say anything more about how stupid she was being to connecting herself with useless people, so clearly he’d said something good.

Without a look at them, cradling her cactus, Sakura had left the room, only Namiashi knowing that she’d pulled her chakra to her fists for several long moments, having been willing ( _was willing)_ to punch her aunt and uncle to get them to shut up if they said _one more thing_ about Naruto or Gaara.

She’d resigned herself to having to put up with them until she was a genin, because there was little choice otherwise, and had settled herself into letting them think her weak-willed and weak-bodied as long as it meant that she could be in the Academy, but she wouldn’t stand for them insulting Naruto and Gaara. She’d bitten her tongue bloody hearing some of her aunt’s comments about kunoichi, more specifically her mother, but without approval to living on her own, she had to be under their roof until she was considered an adult of Konoha as a genin.

She would be having words (one day) with Sandaime for taking the choice of whether to stay in the Orphanage or having to stay with family that hated everything that she held dear, away from her, even if he’d had good intentions in doing so.

Right now, she would settle for an audience to listen to her rant and rave about insensitive dickwads that couldn’t see how precious Naruto and Gaara were, at how they deserved so much better than their villages hating them for reasons that no one would give. (Not that she would get an audience. Until the day that Amayasaki was no longer needed – Until the day that _Sakura_ could stand up and be taken seriously in protecting hers – no one could know of the steps she’d taken to ensure their safety and well-being without risking drawing herself to the attention of Shimuza Danzo.)

The rest of the trip was split between Sakura spending as much time as she could with Gaara, and to a degree, the Kazekage, because she’d spent years listening to her mother rant about how being a (Ho)kage was a lonely job that left few relationships that didn’t become tainted with the difference in rank and in difference of opinion, and she knew that he needed connections. He was Gaara’s father, and Gaara cared about him, respected and admired him, and she wanted to help. If that meant she would be sending him little letters full of nonsensical things so he could laugh for the foreseeable future, she would be happy to do so. When not with Gaara, she strived to make her presence felt with her aunt and uncle without saying a word to them, doing her best to ignore every attempt for them to talk with her while still forcing lost opportunity after lost opportunity on them. She had every intention of making it clear that their relationship was over, that she didn’t care if they were blood, if they disowned her and cast her out completely from the clan, that would make her _happy_ , because Naruto was her family, Gaara was her friend, and she wouldn’t tolerate bad-mouthing, and it was only because they were blood that she hadn’t made their lives hell.

Sakura did feel bad for Namiashi, witness to so many of their interactions, and clearly unsure if he had any right to step in. She had figured out that he thought that her aunt and uncle were her parents, and even if he was uncomfortable with some of their comments and attitude toward her, thought that unless there was clear and present harm being done to her, that he didn’t have the authority to step in. She almost approached him and told him that he didn’t have to worry, that she wasn’t bothered, and if she had her way, she and Naruto would be graduating the Academy in as few years as possible. Only she didn’t, because she already knew that this whole episode would cast an undue amount of scrutiny on her for her odd behavior, even if she was nearly sure that no one knew that she had befriended the Kazekage’s son other than the Kazekage himself and some of his ANBU, and she didn’t want to become the focus of that one-eyed councilman on her unless there was no other way but to play all her cards.

On her last day, just before they would leave, Sakura met with Gaara one last time, and smiling as wide as Naruto, rushed him for a hug, “Don’t forget to write me back Gaara-kun!”. Gaara stiffened at her touch, sand shifting and coiling from the ground to try and come between her and him, and she pulsed her chakra as it tried to pierce her soft underbelly, tried to circle around her neck, making it falter and crumble from her skin as she clutched at him, “You’re my precious friend and if you go quiet for too long, I _will_ come looking for you!”, wanting to give him all the affection in the world. She didn’t care that he didn’t return the hug, was stiff as a board the entire time, or that his sand had made a valid attempt to stop her (kill her), because she was a tactile person – had become one for Naruto’s sake because he was touch-starved – and she knew that Gaara likely was just as touch-starved as Naruto, and she _needed_ to be in lots of casual contact with her precious people to show them that they were loved. (She would never admit to it, but after her mother died, Naruto was the only one who would have casual contact with her more than occasionally if she didn’t initiate it, and was a bit touch-starved herself as well.)

A shy smile twisted his lips a moment after she drew back, knowing better than to (completely) overwhelm him with a hug when he was so clearly uncomfortable with it, “Take care Sakura-san,”, a handful of his sand clutched in her hand.

She was smiling as she took her leave of Suna, already composing two separate letters in her mind, and clutching her cactus to her chest, knowing that Gaara giving her a cutting of one of his precious cacti had been the equivalent of Naruto sharing his ramen for him, trying to think of places that she could hide it so that nothing happened to it – she wouldn’t put it past her aunt and uncle to kill the plant out of spite.

~

Sakura knew that Genma genuinely didn’t know what to do with her, as she (and many times, Naruto, when it didn’t stick out that someone was helping her), would get D-rank after D-rank, and finish them with ease, going through so many of them that Genma had taken to getting six or seven for a day, and limiting them to that so that the other genin-sensei didn’t lecture him for taking them all. Normally, the D-ranks helped the genin team develop their teamwork, while doing a fair bit of community service and learning the layout of Konoha by heart, and allowed the genin sensei to gauge their students’ limits. The first didn’t happen, as she was alone (or with Naruto, who Sakura was sure Genma was starting to think of as an extension of her), and the third was difficult to do when she was _purposely_ making it difficult for him – but the second, that she (they) already had down.

She knew there were assumptions he could make about her base skill as a supposed Uzumaki, and she was doing her best to foster those without making him overestimate her too much. She already knew her physical weaknesses and was already correcting those (without his input), leaving him to teach her taijutsu during the times they trained, outside when he was teaching knowledge to her that every other genin would be getting in the Academy (a good portion of which she’d learned already from her years hanging around her mother in the Archives).

Sakura was incredibly pleased when he had yet to push for a solely taijutsu match between them, letting her practice substitution, and to a degree, clones, in their practice, and thus not notice how she would momentarily disappear when hit, as she’d modified this clone, upon dispelling, to switch with a nearby object as she made a clone to replace her. She knew her luck wouldn’t last forever, and either eventually he would figure out that he’d been training a clone, or he would push for a taijutsu match, but _this had to_ last until she came back from Suna, so that they could switch out for taijutsu training (either way, so that the real one was practicing, because once the Academy started, the sensei wouldn’t let her do this like Genma did).

With his one-on-one instruction, she knew that her taijutsu was getting better, just as all these clones were forcing her chakra reserves to grow to keep up, and her control to be more fine-tuned because she couldn’t waste any chakra if she wanted to keep up this charade. (It had helped immensely that Asuma had told her that meditation helped grow chakra reserves, because then she could rest her ‘body’, grow her reserves of chakra, and still work through some of the problems she had.) The fact that he was so insistent on the basics really worked in her favor, as Genma did not seem to like to use any overtly powerful jutsu, even if she suspected he had at least one for his trump card, and probably was the reason why Sandaime had chosen him to tutor her.

She suspected that Sandaime’d had another reason for pairing them, and she fully intended to find it out, but she knew that she needed to be at least chuunin-level in skill before she managed to weasel that one out of either one (by recon, by interrogation, by finding files that she had absolutely no right in looking at), or manage to find out (by stumbling across it on sheer blind luck), because Genma was hiding something from her that he half-thought she should know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, my favorite chapter.  
> In my notes for this, the visit to Suna is supposed to be just a blip, just a passover between one major event to the next.  
> Then Sakura met her friend(s) and they took over for a while.  
> I may not have been able to resist the temptation of diving a little deeper into the relationship between the Yondaime Kazekage and his son, to show there were motives beyond bad parenting. I mean, Kishimoto tried to make it where Yondaime Kazekage cared about Gaara, but had only previously made him look like a douche. I just wanted the man to be less of a douche, because honestly, it felt like there was some semblance of reasoning behind what he’d been doing with Gaara, but not really ever touched upon. Hopefully, I succeeded in touching upon that. If only lightly.  
> This was also an excellent opportunity to really highlight (without going too deeply), that those almost-plot holes regarding decisions made by the Sandaime and Yondaime Kazekage, where the decisions they made, or didn’t make, that just made them look bad (like incompetence, or being a douche), had reasonings. That they were trying to do something good, and keep the village’s welfare in mind, (but they are shinobi, so good is relative), but are ultimately human and don’t always pick the better of the two sucky options, because there is no winning in those situations.


	7. Abandoning Spring Fields, for Fishcake and Fans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entering the Academy, and the first few days of no longer being 'just a civilian'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hm, Kishimoto is not I.
> 
> Unbetaed.  
> 5-14-17

Sakura returned to Konoha a few days before the Academy started, and as soon as she had tracked down Shisui and explicitly threatened reproductive harm if anything happened to her precious cactus while he safe-guarded it for her before handing it off to him, uncaring of how he’d paled a few shades and shuffled back a step or two back with a hand in front of his crotch, she’d pointedly left her aunt and uncle’s home with no intent of coming back unless Sandaime made her. Neither party had a said a word, cold looks and disapproval heavy between them, as they wanted her to have nothing to do with Naruto and she refused to stop being his friend.

She knew that they thought that she would come crawling back, repentant, and willing to give up Naruto’s friendship in return for a roof over her head, in a few days. Leaving that house, and as soon as she was out of their sight, she let a sharp-fanged smile curl her lips, _because Naruto was family, and fuck them if they thought she would give up on family_ , not when they’d had nothing to do with her until _after_ her mother had died.

What Sakura hadn’t counted on, for all that Naruto was touched regarding her show of loyalty, was that he didn’t want her to cut her ties with her family because of him (through in hindsight, she should have seen it coming, considering he had none and wouldn’t want her to lose hers, even if she would never call them anything but blood relations of her father). Since the moment that she had shown up at one of his numerous little hidey-holes that he’d been sleeping in the months since the Orphanage had kicked him out, he had been trying to get her to return, but she was nothing if not stubborn, and she wouldn’t until there was no choice (and probably not even then, as she had her pride, and she was proud to call Naruto the brother of her heart).

During those first few days of the Academy, where she was able to observe her year-mates without suspicion, she learned little beyond the sensei establishing what they knew, and that even clan heirs like Hyuuga Hinata and Ino only knew marginally more knowledge-wise, having had access to life-long shinobi and generations worth of teachings, but were leagues above civilian children in terms of chakra reserves, stamina, and strength due to many of them being ten-plus generational legacies and having been trained since they could walk.

Sakura didn’t push herself as hard as she could go, letting herself do only marginally better than some of the other civilian-raised physically, as she saw how some of the sensei eyed those like Uchiha Sasuke (and she had stared at him for a moment, half-thinking that Shisui had henged himself younger with a few minute facial changes, right up until he had acted in typical Uchiha manner which she was sure Shisui couldn’t do unless his life depended on it) and how they looked down at Naruto. She knew the moment that they nearly tried to hold Naruto off from starting that year, because he was too weak physically and not smart enough, before the youngest sensei, a student teacher as he’d just become a sensei, a Umino Iruka, passed him without input from the rest.

She’d watched as the other sensei had thinned their lips, clearly unhappy Naruto was at the Academy officially now, but they didn’t have a foot to stand on that Naruto couldn’t – she knew that he’d passed the minimum knowledge test (because she’d made sure that he could) and his chakra reserves were ridiculously large, his stamina was outright ridiculous, and he wasn’t at all weak, just undisciplined in his application of strength.

During that very first day, she had seen how the other girls had paid a lot of attention to Sasuke. She honestly didn’t understand it, as while he had a pretty face, she didn’t feel the need to giggle every time he looked even remotely in her direction, didn’t feel the need to stare after him and admire him.

She could appreciate how fierce his taijutsu was, how offensive and graceful it was. She liked the defensive-heavy taijutsu Hinata displayed as part of the Gentle Fist style, but something about the Uchiha-style appealed to her more. If she played along by appearing to moon over his pretty face, she was only doing it to not draw attention to how she was among the few (two) of the ten prospective kunoichi in their year to not, and because it allowed her to analyze his taijutsu and pick and choose what forms to incorporate for herself.

She was careful to not make it too terribly obvious though, because Ino liked Sasuke and she was nothing if not loyal, and wouldn’t betray her friend like that. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t give up the appearance of a crush on Sasuke either, not when such a thing would allow her to put an end to her aunt’s matchmaking, if she had to go back and live with her.

Something she did not want to do, but Naruto was being persistent on how they were family and she shouldn’t cut them out of her life over a disagreement, and she knew she would cave if he pulled that heartbroken look and said something about how he would give anything for a family, followed up by calling her Nee-chan, because he _knew_ he could get away with anything with that.

Considering how the other girls started acting towards Sasuke, and how one of the sensei made an off-hand comment regarding how they didn’t know anything about him and should at least get to know him, and they started to stalk him, Ino being one of them, Sakura found herself stalking him. She only did so because Ino dragged her along – and Sakura always approved of bettering her recon skills – even if she was curious on his exact relation to Shisui and Itachi.

Considering Ino was like a bull in a china shop, and was noticed quickly more often than not, their recon didn’t actually wield much. Still, Sakura enjoyed the time with Ino, at how this was basically a play-mission, and that this made Ino happy. She could accept mission-failure if it meant Ino was happy (and safe, because once Ino could succeed at these types of missions, she would be bumped up like how the sensei were arguing to do for Sasuke, and enter the field before her if she graduated even a year earlier, to where she couldn’t protect her).

It wasn’t like she couldn’t do her own recon either (and much more successfully, considering she’d been running surveillance on Hatake and Genma for months without being stopped), but she had no real need to, not until she had to decide what to do about her ‘crush’.

~

Sakura was at the park where they had met with Ino as they played out in the field, picking flowers. Her eyes were watching her friend fondly as the other girl talked on and on about Sasuke, still not understanding what about him had all the girls their age obsessing over him to the point of stalking him, not when she’d much rather play with Ino (or Naruto, but Naruto seemed determined to not drag her into why the sensei didn’t like him and have her failing as well with him, and was keeping their interactions at the Academy at a minimum) chasing each other around the park, or played in the sandbox.

She was happy that Ino didn’t seem to want to chase after Sasuke today, as while she loved any chance to practice doing research on a target (and Sasuke was nowhere as hard as trying to follow Kakashi or Genma, and child’s play compared to her spying on Danzo), because it allowed her to try any new tactics she learned from her increasing book knowledge, and because it would explain her practical good scores when the sensei inevitably tested them.

And good scores were mandatory to have, not just because it would mean her continued presence at the Academy to advance, but if she did return to her aunt and uncle, and Naruto was wearing her down on that front (thanks to what she wanted to call his talk-no-jutsu, because given enough time and a reason to be determined, that boy could talk anyone into seeing things his way), then having scores in the top five of the class meant they couldn’t pull her out of the class without giving a valid and indubitable reason to Sandaime.

Once she returned to her aunt and uncle, she had no doubt that her aunt would be quickly and fervently trying to matchmaker to some merchant’s son, who would only accept such a union if she was no longer a kunoichi, as it had been made very clear that she would not make an ‘advantageous’ match being a kunoichi, and her marriage to a civilian would be among the only reasons Sandaime would accept to withdraw her from the Academy. She didn’t want to, because Ino was her _friend_ and she would be hurt by her seemingly betrayal at liking Sasuke, at being her rival instead of her friend because that was what they would become if she took that route, but she _had to_. It was only the appearance of possibly marrying into such an esteemed and _wealthy_ clan like the Uchiha, and thus making her career choice ‘acceptable’ even if not ideal, that would stall her aunt from such extreme action, and she _refused to quit being a shinobi_. Ino would understand one day once she was free from her aunt.

Even if she was resolute to this course of action, it didn’t mean that they both wouldn’t mourn their blossoming friendship as if it had been killed with malice (when it had been killed in a cold, calculating evaluation of priorities) and they would lose someone who could keep up with them, someone who understood the pressures that came from being the heir of their respective clans, and for liking flowers as much. It didn’t mean she didn’t kind-of hate that her priorities were a tad skewed in respect to Naruto, but he was her first friend and she was his _only_ friend, and Ino could survive the loss of a friend because Ino was nothing if not resilient. It didn’t mean she didn’t foresee making a lot of sacrifices for her dream of being a kunoichi, for being one undeniably.

She refused to let herself be removed from this world so easily, wanted to feel what her mother had as a pre-genin, as a genin, as a chuunin, even if she didn’t want to draw more attention than necessary to herself ( _had_ to blend, to _not_ be an outlier) until she had her hitai-ate in hand and she was counted as a shinobi of Konoha, and she had a village behind her.

As it was, once she told Ino of her supposed feelings, she would lose a buffer between her and the bullies she just didn’t have the patience to deal with, not with their truly pedestrian insults, not when she had bigger things to worry about – like Naruto’s wellbeing, like keeping Genma in the dark about Amayasaki being a façade and a clone, like Gaara’s wellbeing, like making sure Tou-sama didn’t shut her out, like making sure Hatake didn’t run himself into the ground, like figuring out why Danzo was so damn creepy and unnerving to her. Some of the other girls had already cornered her and demanded to know why she didn’t act like Sasuke was the greatest thing in the world, why she acted like she found fault with him, and to get them off her back, she’d ‘shyly’ admitted to ‘liking’ Sasuke too, but staunchly stating that Ino was her friend and she liked him, and she would never make a move and hurt her friend.

She was caught in a stalemate of trying to keep the other girl’s attention off her, trying to give her aunt a viable romantic interest, and trying to keep from hurting Ino.

Picking another daisy for the flower chain she was making, her mind wandered to how maybe after a few weeks, or months, her aunt and uncle might even _allow_ her to go practice after the five o’clock curfew they’d enacted prior to her leaving after she returned. As it was, she already had to think of ways to give them ‘reasonable proof’ that she actually stood a chance to become the next ‘Uchiha-hime’.

An annoyed expression flickered over her face for just a second at the thought of how Ino _had to_ marry a shinobi at some point in her twenties to continue her family line, but had considerable leeway with being the only heir to the Yamanaka clan and with a doting father. As long as he was a shinobi of some level, through Sakura knew that Ino would never accept anyone that wasn’t her equal, Ino could negotiate her choice.

Sakura hated that she couldn’t even chose friends (among Konoha citizens/shinobi, or her allies) without risking (getting) disownment for it.

Turning towards Ino, about to say that Sasuke was ‘cute’, trying to open a conversation about ‘maybe she liked Sasuke too’, when a flash of movement behind Ino caught her attention.

She had but a moment to identify the black blurs, one small and the other large, as being birds, before they flew past her face, the tips of their wings brushing against her skin. Then her hair fell forward into her face in a way it hadn’t since becoming Ino’s friend (and not being Amayasaki) and she realized that one of the birds had managed to grab the red ribbon from her hair. She clambered up from where she had been sitting properly on her legs, lady-like as her aunt had drilled into her head and she hadn’t bothered to break with the knowledge that she would likely go back to her, before bowing deeply to Ino quickly, “Gomenosai, Ino-chan!”, then dashing after the birds, “Sayōnara, Sakura-chan!”.

Her eyes locked onto the birds, and she ran after them as they glided through the air swiftly to a tree along the edge of the park, before hearing two gravelly voices come from their general direction, one considerably younger, _“ I got it Tou-san! Did I pass?”_, before the other sighed, _“ Not quite. For us to best to serve our master, we need to be light-taloned, and unobtrusive. That was not.”_, one of the crows’ dark eyes watching how she ran after them. The smaller of the two crows ruffled his feathers in disappointment, looking away to find a new target so he could prove to his father that he _was_ good enough, still holding the red ribbon in his talons. The older and larger of the crows watched with interest at how the little girl, who didn’t seem perturbed by hearing an animal speak, which was unusual at her age unless she came from a family who had a talking summon (but she had regular talks with Pakkun about Hatake and his wellbeing, so it was nothing strange to her), covered the ground quickly and efficiently, wasting  little energy as she ran, and not yelling at them like most would, which suggested that she was used to her things being taken, her protests being useless, and needing to do something herself to get them back.

She reminded him of his master in many ways for that, but particularly as her small reserves carefully pushed a miniscule amount toward the soles of her feet as she ran up the bark of the tree.

It was her small pale hand reaching up for the ribbon still held in his son’s talon just as he took flight to go after some other shiny bauble elsewhere in the park, that had his son realizing she’d noticed them and was in pursuit. He attempted to put distance between them, startled at her ‘sudden’ appearance and careening backwards into a nearby branch, just as she managed to grasp the edge of her ribbon, caught on the tip of a talon. It began to rip as his son began to panic when one wing smacked hard into the wood and appeared to have been hurt in the action, and he flapped helplessly and began to fall from the tree for it.

Her grip on her ribbon, with his foot still snagged on it, stalled his panic-addled fall long enough for his other foot to latch onto her wrist tightly, almost drawing blood.

For a moment, the three of them just stared at each other, her green eyes gazing at the ribbon unhappily as the younger of the crows settled uneasily on her arm, forced to stay there as he couldn’t quite jump back onto the tree, on top of how he would be stranded there, and the older realized that this was far from the first time the girl had accomplished such a feat to be squatting in the crook of the tree calmly.

Sakura eyed the injured wing as she carefully pried her ribbon from his talon, “You’re both summons, yes?”, already knowing the answer considering she’d heard them talk, but hoping one of them would volunteer who their contractor was without her directly asking – Pakkun had explained that most summons would never answer that question, if it was not already known, as such protections were worked into the very contracts that were signed between summon and summoner – _“ Yes, we are, but you knew that.”_.

Holding the crow aloft on her arm as she climbed down, she talked, “I know you won’t tell me who your summoner is, but I can take you both to Hana-san. Hana-san is a medic-in-training, with a specialization for animals, and she should be able to take care of this wing.”, seeing the elder fly down to perch on her shoulder, _“ That would be excellent, . . .”_.

Sakura thinned her lips for a moment, trying to think of a reason that would allow her to fade back into the background without attracting another shinobi’s interest, but with her pink hair, any name she gave but her own would just stall, and draw more attention to an attempt at subterfuge, “Sakura,”.

The crow pointedly didn’t look at her hair, repeating his earlier line now that he knew what name he was to deliver to his summoner in regard to up-and-coming talent and potential teammates for the precious younger brother to his summoner that could be acceptable, _“ That would be excellent, Hana-chan knows who our summoner is, and I will retrieve him as soon as you deliver my son to her.”_.

From there, she made quick work to go to the Inuzuka compound in search of Hana, pleased that she had found a reason to meet up with the older girl for non-suspicious reasons, having been looking for a reason for their paths to cross again without potentially drawing the wrong type of attention for a civilian around a clan heir. She was fully aware that she could have come around and tried to instigate a conversation with Hana, but she didn’t know how to be forward on her own anymore.

Too many times had she squashed such forward behavior as Sakura, had let Amayasaki develop every aggressive tendency she had for her, and she found that it was only in doing things for others (Naruto, Hatake, Gaara . . ) that she would push forward as herself.

Sakura knew that it wasn’t healthy to suppress so many emotions, to keep so many under such a tight leash without outlet – her mother had explained that was why the higher up the ranks one went, the more odd and eccentric quirks shinobi developed, and why she’d never been too terribly upset at just being a chuunin, because she’d _liked_ emotional stability, and why she’d cautioned her daughter to be careful how good and smart she was until she was _ready_ (unless it came down to her life or the lives of her precious people, then _fuck that_ , people were _going down_ – and she knew her mother would have approved, a too sharp proud smile on her face). She could see it in Hatake, and in the Uchiha heir, could see it in nearly everyone above chuunin (through in that they were less emotionally-stunted and more eccentric-quirks-all-around) – it was how she’d identified them at what rank they were, honestly, just as much as by what flak jacket they wore. She knew that if she didn’t find a way to express all those emotions on her own in _some_ way, in at least some minor way, that she was headed to weekly sessions with a Yamanaka until such divided emotions were resolved, in the near future. Honestly, it would be fitting if she got Inoichi and she reminded people that someone needed to look more closely into civilian-raised pre-genin and the dictonomy they were raised in (particularly the girls), because she knew she wasn’t the only one that was struggling under opposing values (and that there were more than a few talents squashed under the weight), she was just the only one who wasn’t shodding off her civilian persona when she was aware of them being in conflict.

She supposed that meant she should probably find her own eccentric hobby, and some way to release the tension of carrying so many negative emotions around that was acceptable to civilians. She would watch the higher ranks a little more closely now for their quirks, and see which and what might work for her, and see which ones a civilian ‘lady’ could get away with.

She wasn’t far into the compound when three familiar dogs came running towards her, and nearly bowled her over if she hadn’t hastily imbued chakra to her legs so that she remained standing, very aware of the crow clinging to her shoulder tightly.

Sakura found herself smiling at the three, “Hainatsu, Haiharu, Haikaede, it’s good to see you again!”, petting at two of three as the third, Haikaede by the paler fur on his left shoulder that looked like a maple leaf, sat in front of her and whined softly at the crow.

The young crow puffed up slightly in indignation at whatever the dog said, but didn’t respond, and she raised an eyebrow to him, before speaking again to the dogs, “Can you three take me to Hana-chan? Crow-san hurt his wing and I was hoping she could take care of it.”.

Haiharu wagged his tail before nudging her in the back of the knee with his nose, trying to push her forward.

Sakura took the nudge, and followed the three dogs deeper into the compound, hands automatically petting at whatever two brushed against her legs as the third led the way, the three switching every few moments so that they all got pet – because they were ninken, and they were supposed to be above being treated like everyday pets, but they _adored_ people who would scratch behind their ears and just generally loved on them – “Sakura-chan!”.

Hana stood in front of her, hands on her hips as she smiled wide at seeing the girl again, and this time with a crow on her shoulder, “Did Itachi-chan send you?”.

She blinked, before looking at the crow, “You’re one of Uchiha-san’s summons?”, before answering Hana, “No, I was in the park when this one tried to steal my ribbon without me noticing. I got it back, but his talon got caught on it and he smacked one of his wings against the wood of a tree. It seems to be hurt now. I came to you, because I heard you were learning medical ninjutsu with a specialty towards animals.”. Letting her assume that she’d heard that from her younger brother, Kiba, and not because she had run a bit of recon on her after her rescue.

The crow spoke after a second, _“Otou-san was training me to be unobtrusive. And your ribbon was shiny.”_ , somehow looking petulant, _“I only hurt my wing because you startled me when you climbed that tree without me noticing, so it’s your fault it’s hurt.”_.

Sakura raised an eyebrow at his statement, “I startled you? Your father noticed me coming after you seconds after I was. Not my fault you’re unobservant.”, and the crow narrowed his eyes, _“I am not! You’re just sneaky.”_.

Hana spoke then, holding a hand out for the crow to hop onto, “Crow-san, if you would?”, the other hand lightly glowing with pale green chakra, “So I can see how bad your wing’s hurt.”.

The crow made a show of hopping from Sakura’s shoulder to Hana’s hand, and Sakura smirked at the bird while he couldn’t see her face, appreciating the compliment, before Hana lightly settled her hand on his back, using her chakra to probe gently against his wing, “Well, it looks like you just bruised it good, Crow-san.”.

Hana’s eyes glittered with mischief when she looked up and saw Itachi approaching with another, larger crow on his shoulder, “Itachi-chan!”.

Sakura was quiet as she watched the Uchiha approach, noting how his eyes narrowed minutely at the address, and nearly felt sorry for Shisui because she had no doubt that Itachi would be taking it out on his hide (again) for calling him that in Hana’s hearing (as the girl seemed to be taking an unholy amount of delight in calling him that at every opportunity), but she figured he’d deserved it – and she still wasn’t all that pleased with his continued attempts to ambush her and drag her off like she was a prize, being his recommendation to the Academy. He nodded slightly in greeting, “Hana-san, Haruno-san.”, before his eyes focused on the crow, “How is Aki?”.

Hana smiled as she handed over the crow, “Just a bruised wing. He’ll be fine in a few days. If he doesn’t try to fly until tomorrow, and only short flights then, it’ll be healed by two days after that.”, watching as the elder crow on his shoulder nodded his understanding of this before turning an authoritative gaze towards the younger, making it clear that her words would be obeyed, leaving her pleased that Itachi thought highly enough of her skills that his summons trusted her words without suspicions. Unlike most of his clan (the few who had summons), who would only reluctantly allow her to examine their cats when something was clearly wrong, and would second-guess everything she said until her mentor repeated everything for them.

Sakura watched this exchange carefully, not looking away even as Itachi’s eyes flickered toward her unabashed eyes, curiosity sparking in them for her, before he took his leave without another word.

She wouldn’t forget that Itachi’s summons were crows, even as Haiharu bumped against her knees to push her toward Hana with a soft whine, and led her to spend the rest of the day playing with the three Haimaru Brothers (and Hana).

Objectively, she could understand why crows would be a good summon, what with their unobtrusive appearance and how someone could dismiss them without thought, how they were incredibly smart (how normal crows were incredibly smart and knew how to work tools and recognize complex concepts, let alone with the advanced intelligence given to summons) that made them ideal for surveillance and reconnaissance. She found herself very curious on whether or not a dog or crow would serve her better as a summon, if she were to get one.

Playing with Naruto the next day, where Genma had started their day by having Amayasaki track down Naruto as practicing with her sensoring abilities, she found herself drawn more toward crows because the one major positive between the two for dogs was for their tracking abilities (because the offensive capabilities were nice, but their land-bound limitations cut that advantage in half in her mind, and the flying advantage of crows outweighed that for her) and if she worked on her own, worked on her sensor abilities, those positives were essentially negated.

It made her look for crows as she moved through Konoha, saw how they roughly blanketed the village, and while she had questions for _why would Itachi feel the need to observe the village_ , she could see how people dismissed them without thought. Could see how the crows could easily follow people, could listen in on many things.

Sakura thought that she might approach Itachi and try to get access to his summoning scroll, and see if she could get answers for that question for _why watch the village_ (hopefully without making it look like she thought him having bad intentions, because if that was true, he would either discredit her completely or end her, and she owed him her life – she would never cast him under suspicion by bringing this to Sandaime’s attention without serious proof).

Only, she wasn’t Naruto and wouldn’t take the first opportunity to ask, wouldn’t unless he was alone, but he was a prodigy, and he would probably know why she was approaching him long before she would.

Sakura held off on asking, feeling crippled by her own inability to take the initiative for herself. If anyone asked, she could have given a lecture on all the advantages that having a crow summon would give her, and why of all the summons she knew off (through that was admittedly only roughly a dozen) crows were best suited to what skills she wished to harness most, but going forth and _doing_ , that she was finding to be another matter entirely.

She was tempted to have Amayasaki approach him, to ask – and she was curious if because Amayasaki was a clone of her, if that would work to get her on the summoning scroll – but Amayasaki had no business knowing the crows were Itachi’s, and crows weren’t exactly the creature she had in mind for her (Amayasaki needed something far more aggressive, something with sharp teeth and claws, if anything).

So instead of approaching Itachi, she pondered what summon would better suit Amayasaki as she continued to observe Sasuke.

Sakura was thinking a feline would be good, but she was stalling on what type would be best, most of her focus on how over the next month, whenever she was stalking Sasuke, most of the other girls were either heard giggling by Sasuke, or were intercepted by Itachi and Shisui the few times Sasuke didn’t notice them himself. More particularly, her focus was truly on how Itachi stalked Sasuke, to the point that whenever he was in the village, it was a good bet that he was somewhere in the surroundings watching over Sasuke, and would escort the younger boy to and from the Academy.

She very much had wanted to snicker at how she could see the blatant worry in Itachi’s frame – because he looked like he worried that anyone and everyone would steal the child out from his nose – that he hid well, but she knew the signs better than anyone, hiding her own for Naruto, whenever he trailed after an exuberant Sasuke, who looked at the other like he was his whole world.

The question of _why would Itachi feel it necessary to watch the village_ continued to nag at her, but she had realized that Itachi loved the village too much, loved _Sasuke, his little brother_ , too much. She no longer worried that he was planning something against her home, but now there was a cold fear deep in her belly of _why is Itachi worried about the village_.

She’d had to disappear for a couple hours then, into the forests around Konoha and as far as she could get away from any shinobi without leaving the village, to rage and howl and scream. Because she _knew_ if Itachi, a shinobi of the highest caliber, was worried about something, worried about the village, and who loved his brother above all things, loved Sasuke like she loved Naruto, was concerned about the village acting against him, then she _damn-well should be as well_.

She would approach him, and ask for the summon scroll to his crow, not just to benefit herself, but to tell him in not so many words that he wasn’t alone. Tell him that she would stand by him in whatever came.

She hoped that he could help her protect Naruto, and she would extend her fervent defense to Sasuke – he wouldn’t even have to ask. Sasuke was a good kid, and how he squabbled with Naruto was outright hilarious to her, and she could see the bonds of comradeship blooming between them, and all it would take was a little push and the three of them would be friends.

Sakura wanted to give Naruto the world, and if why Itachi was worried, threatened Naruto in anyway, she would eagerly tear that threat to pieces with her teeth, all Itachi had to do was point her in the right direction. Just as she knew Itachi would do the same for anyone who threatened Sasuke.

The next day, she told Ino about her ‘crush’ on Sasuke, knowing it would sever most of the bond between her and Ino, and she did it not for her cover, not for her aunt’s approval of a crush, not to pursue her dream, but to keep Ino safe. Because she knew whatever had Itachi concerned, if she was to stand alongside him against the threat, it would be dangerous, and she would not risk Ino being collateral damage.

As it was, only the fact that she and Naruto hadn’t interacted much as Sakura and Naruto since Amayasaki had been created, was why she didn’t try and distance herself from him – and she would never hurt him that way either, she loved him too much (because she knew if she did, it would _destroy_ him).

Ino’s words of proclaiming them rivals ringed in her ears even now as she walked through the streets away from the park, her words of challenge loud as they bounced around in her head about becoming everything rumored about Sasuke’s type. From her stalking, she knew that Sasuke had absolutely no interest in girls yet, would sneer in disgust at the idea of liking anyone like that when Shisui would tease him about his fangirls, and could honestly care less about earning a boy’s love when the cost would be a friend. She would play along, because Ino was smart, and if she thought she wasn’t serious about Sasuke, she would try and look into why she wasn’t, so she would pretend to be on diets to be slim, would hide her muscle, would grow her hair out to impractical lengths before she had the skill to have it so, would be the girly girl expected of her, so Ino suspected nothing about her reasons for saying she ‘liked’ Sasuke.

She walked towards where Sasuke was, intending to approach where Shisui and Itachi would be hiding.

Even before she’d started to stalk Sasuke, she’d kept an eye out for when Shisui and Itachi were in the village, partially so she could avoid Shisui’s stalker-ish tendencies as he would try and find her if she got even moderately in range of his sensing and to avoid Itachi’s curiosity, which had only grown since she’d returned his crow to him (partially because she found herself caring for their wellbeing, and through she would not go as far as she had for Hatake – and only because trying to break into the Uchiha compound was outright suicidal). Occasionally she’d test the exact range Shisui could sense her, just so she could see his premier technique, the Shunshin, in action. He was supposedly the best at it, and it looked to be a handy skill to have, and through she’d learned how to do the ‘body flicker’ technique from others – due to his specialty in it, and even had some success with using it (she only had the reserves for one try at any real distance, or three short jumps) – but his one-handed, only one sign, usage intrigued her, and considering he went nearly everywhere by it, he had to have figured out how to do the least amount of chakra possible. Each time she’d watched him at it, she knew she got just a little closer to figuring out that perfect amount. As for Itachi, well, every move he made was graceful and minimal energy, silent and holding an understated dangerous edge, so she just liked to watch him move, trying to see how he did as such so she could mimic it.

Sakura had made her choice, and even if she could see Sasuke all but hero-worshipping his brother as Shisui snickered, she continued forward regardless to how this was not how she’d wanted to do this ( – too much attention, too much suspicion to how good she actually was). She met his eyes evenly as she passed him, flashing him a hand-sign _meet me_ as she seemed to adjust her hair behind her ear, seeing the faint flicker of surprise in his eyes at knowing the hand-sign. His hand twitched in response _where_ , and she smiled, “Kobanwa, Sasuke-kun, Uchiha-sans!”, hand twitching _find me, later_ as she bowed slightly in acknowledgement to all three Uchiha and then left on her way, not needing to see how Shisui and Itachi had shared a look at her knowing hand-signs years before her peers would learn even the basics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last of my finals is due tomorrow, then I’m free and clear until late September from college. I meant to post this Monday, but fell asleep as soon I got home from that final, and yesterday, finally got past that spot in chapter nine giving me trouble.  
> Did anyone notice, how for all the world being full of ninja, there’s actually not a lot of subterfuge going on? There are plot twists, but not a lot of ‘looking underneath the underneath’ for a long time. Most of their missions are rather straight-forward too. And that’s what’s been stalling me.  
> Double-speak and implied statements that can still be picked up on, but on the surface, look like something else, something ordinary.  
> Meh, I might edit that part before posting it, but it’s at least done for now so I can get to the conversation that I’m been eagerly waiting to write since Naruto’s introduction. The last bit of chapter nine.
> 
> I'm curious if is anyone has caught on with the chapter titles. Also, perhaps the story title is making more sense now, hm?


	8. Protecting What is Precious Before All Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura entwines her fate with the Uchiha, and is involved with some aggressive adoption.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this chapter almost ready to go for three weeks, but was having this . . would the term be 'semi-betaed'? I had a friend read it over, most particularly for run-on sentences, but he's dsylexic so some things probably escaped us. I made small changes though, so here? Enjoy!
> 
> Kishimoto is not I.

Sakura had known that the two would track her down that night,  that they would believe that she had snuck out to talk, but she was already out and about.

She’d didn’t so much as twitch when the two shinobi landed next to where had hidden herself on a ledge, setting up traps around where Naruto dozed, on a self-imposed watch. She might have been tempted to fling kunai toward them, but she had sensed them coming minutes before they saw her, following little signs she’d left for them while her chakra had been half-smothered.

Before Shisui could speak, before he could get out his question for why they were out here so late in the evening, she raised a hand for  _quiet_ , eyes locked on where she could just vaguely sense the almost-absence of chakra signifying an ANBU, one of Naruto’s guard.

She knew this one – it was Cat by his soothing chakra that made her think _tree_ – and he was the ANBU most often assigned the late-night shifts to watch Naruto, and the two of them had reached an agreement. He was kinder than most of their guard, interfering when she was not enough to disway those that hated Naruto, lingering just out of sight but always close, leaving a little yen out of his own pocket each day so that Naruto could eat, and though he was watching, he had yet to report anything odd about her skill level, because no one – not even Sandaime – had questioned her about why she was holding back. She flashed a few hand-signs up at him _please, privacy, owe you for this_ , and she almost caught a glimpse of him nodding, before he backed off a bit.

Sakura turned to face Shisui and Itachi then, both of them watching her intently, Shisui’s eyes narrowed at her and Itachi tracking Cat’s exit until he was farther away, waiting for them to speak.

Shisui didn’t take long, “How did you know about Cat watching Naruto?”, looking far more like a serious shinobi than anyone would expect from him with how often he played the happy-go-lucky flirt.

She ran a hand through Naruto’s blonde spikes, letting her chakra soothe him into a deeper sleep, “It took some practice, but I learned how to recognize chakra signatures. I probably only can recognize when there are ANBU because there _always_ around Naruto. As for recognizing Cat, ANBU have an almost absence of chakra, but not completely, it just takes a little familiarity and getting in close enough proximity to actually read it. I can only reliably recognize Hound and Cat, most times Rat as well, but anyone else is a mystery as intended. And only those three because they seem to be on Naruto-watch most often from what I can tell.”. She didn’t need to see them share a look at that, as it made her a serious security risk if anyone figured out that she’d learned to recognize ANBU chakra signatures.

Shisui looked out at where Cat had gone just out of sight and hearing, but still well within range to be there in seconds if necessary, “Why did you tell him to back off?”.

Sakura looked directly at Itachi, meeting his eyes evenly, “Why are Itachi-san’s crows watching the village like they’re waiting for something bad?”, ignoring how Shisui’s eyes gained a red-tint.

He held her gaze for a long moment, looking for something and perhaps finding it when he answered, “You noticed. Why are you, Sakura-san?”.

She smiled with sharp teeth, letting the genjutsu that she’d taken to cover how she’d sharpened them for Amayasaki instead of making it just a part of the clone fall, “Because I am for Naruto what you are for Sasuke. If you, heir of a powerful, distinguished clan, have something to worry about from the village, then Naruto _damn well_ has reasons to be worried. The village hates him, and I know many would leap to blame him in a heartbeat for even the slimmest reason, no matter the possibility, or more accurately, the impossibility.”.

Shisui blinked at the sight of her sharp teeth, having seen Amayasaki, and recognized those teeth, “You’re Uzumaki Amayasaki. You took on the mantle of another so you could protect Naruto-chan.”.

Itachi’s eyes sharpened at that, eyes bleeding red because he recognized that her loyalty was not first to the village, but first to Naruto, but she didn’t so much as blink as she held his gaze. Fear was a cold hand down her spine, but she refused to be held back by it now, “Until the day the village turns completely on Naruto, until the day Naruto gives up on earning the village’s respect, I will be loyal to the village because this is our home, but I know better than to believe that just because we are loyal, that it will be loyal in return.”.

She leaned forward slightly, not backing down even as three tomoe began to lazily spin in his eyes, “I will protect this village with my life, but Naruto is my heart and soul. He is why I’m loyal. Just as Sasuke is why you are.”.

Shisui smirked wryly, “She’s just like you, Itachi.”, realizing that whatever lengths Itachi was willing to go to protect Sasuke, little Sakura would do gladly to protect Naruto. He was loyal, and he would do many things for his village, many more for Itachi, but those two took loyal to a whole other level. Took loyal to heights few could match, towards anyone or any idea, willing to do whatever was necessary to protect what they wished to.

She could feel how her breathe caught in her throat at seeing the legendary sharingan, at having it turned towards her as a silent threat, but she continued on to say her final piece, “If, when, you act to protect Sasuke, I will stand with you. I swear to protect Sasuke like I would Naruto, and all I ask is you try to do the same.”.

Shisui’s eyes turned crimson in surprise at that, knowing she didn’t understand the full implications of what she was saying, but as he watched her continue to meet Itachi’s eyes fearlessly, he thought she might understand enough to know what she was offering. Itachi must have realized it as well, because he blinked, and the sharingan faded, but he didn’t look away, speaking slowly as he decided that she deserved to know what she was offering to be involved in, “I worry for the way the Council is acting against the Uchiha clan, and there have been rumblings among some of my kinsman against the village, hating how they have been treated like they are little better than traitors. Only a few rumblings, but I worry about how they could evolve, and what that means for Sasuke, for the village.”.

She nodded slightly in understanding, holding his gaze still so he could see she wasn’t backing down, repeating her offer, “I will stand with you if action is needed in the future. Is there anything I can do to assist now?”.

His gaze softened a fraction, and there was something sad in his eyes, at having just a child involved in this growing mess, hoping that she let them deal with this, “Sakura-san, you don’t need to help. Be a child while you can.”.

Sakura was shaking her head in denial even before he finished, “My _nindo_ is to protect my friends and family. Naruto claims the whole village is just one big family, and I will do nothing less than to protect that family he says we are. For we are all leaves of the same tree.”, letting him read between the lines of why it was more than just to protect Naruto, that for all she said her loyalty remained only with the village as long as Naruto’s did, that she was loyal in truth and would turn to wandering without a home before she betrayed her village, even if they broke her heart with each hurtful thing done and said to Naruto.

The two Uchiha were quiet for a long moment, and Sakura let her attention drift back to the sleeping Naruto, absently petting at his hair as she softly continued, “I can see the stress on your shoulders, trying to carry this alone, Itachi-san, Shisui-san. Let me share the weight so it doesn’t crush you. Let me watch and listen in places you can’t, where people don’t look twice at a child. Let Amayasaki stand with the Uchiha, let her offer a hand to bridge the gap that has come between the Uchiha and the village because of the Council.”.

Leaning back against the wall, settling Naruto’s head in her lap as she ran her fingers through his hair, she saw the Uchiha having a silent conversation, and Shisui did not look pleased before he spoke, “Don’t take any risks while you listen Sakura, if you have no reason to be somewhere, then stay away. The crows can get to most places, more than you could.”, wanting her to understand that she should not risk her life for this, that one way or another, they would resolve the problem, but she didn’t need to go done that path.

Itachi met her eyes, a faint red-tint to them in his seriousness, “Okaa-san likes to shop at the weekly early morning market. She would be a good person for you to approach, as she knew Kushina-san well. Could tell you more about the Uzumaki than most. The village seeing a reminder of her friendship with Kushina-san, would be good.”, a silent threat in them that he would end her if she upset his mother.

She smiled softly, “Thanks for the information, Itachi-san.”, remembering seeing Itachi shopping several times presumably now for his mother, before thinking of her own mother, and wishing that she’d had a chance to be just as protective, remembering one time when she’d clung to her leg and tried to keep her in their apartment instead of going to the Archives when she’d had a cold but failing. She wished that her mother could have lived to see her befriend Naruto, could have lived to adopt Naruto and given him a real home and a mother’s love. She wished that she had her mother to help her in this, so they could reach out to the Uchiha and make a clear show of friendship, because her mother had been amazing and would have fixed this through sheer force of will and careful alteration of paperwork to destroy whatever alienation the Council was causing.

Her mother had been a force of nature, and the world was lesser for her absence, but she’d taught her well her Will of Fire. (They were stronger together; A burden shared is a burden halved; No one is left behind. If we are to die, don’t go alone.)

She didn’t see how Itachi’s eyes softened at the far away melancholy look on her face, red fading away completely as he realized that as long as his mother made no move against Naruto, and she never would because she’d loved Kushina too much to hurt her son, Sakura would never hurt her. Not that he thought she _could_ , he trusted his mother’s skills too much, knew she was too strong – he thought her to be perhaps the third strongest in their clan, stronger than his father as she was far more subtle, and he’d learned from her how to observe and manipulate, unlike the blunt instrument his father was – but still, she was his mother and he wanted her safe.

He thought that if he was judging her right, that the things he’d seen of Sakura and heard from Shisui, and what was known of Amayasaki, that his mother would like her.

(He thought that his mother may take her under her wing, and flash sharingan-bright eyes at anyone that threatened Sakura – and Sakura may bare sharp teeth with the promise of death in her eyes, in return if anyone threatened his mother, if they were alike as he thought.)

Shisui still didn’t look pleased, face set in a careful neutrality bellied by the crimson sparks in his dark eyes, but he didn’t say anything more. He could see that Sakura was determined, and Itachi, while not entirely pleased to have her involved, knew just as well as him that they didn’t have the luxury of being able to turn down aid in such a volatile situation, and Sakura could be just the outside influence needed to begin reconciliation between the Council and the Clan.

He knew better than to hope that just one person could quiet the better part of a decade of distrust, and generations of tenuous alliance from the very beginning of Konoha due to an ancestor. But he could hope that it might stall a conflict between the village and the Uchiha, long enough for Itachi to become clan head and _make_ his clan discard such rebellious thoughts.

He’d been about to leave when Sakura spoke up again, “Itachi-san, could I sign the crow summon scroll?”.

Itachi was quiet for a long moment, “That is not my decision. The crows hide their summon scroll, and will only allow those they deem worthy to find it. Convince the crows you are worthy of becoming their summoner.”.

The two Uchiha left shortly after Itachi’s vague statement, leaving Sakura to think over both how she might find the crow summon scroll, and how she might move forward to assist them – both in spying, and as Amayasaki.

~

Sakura was having less success than she’d like in looking for a way to prove herself worthy of becoming a summoner of crows, but otherwise things continued in much the same vein as they had since entering the Academy.

In the earliest hours of sunlight and just prior, she would practice until she had developed a strong appetite, get breakfast for her and Naruto, allow Genma to find Naruto and Amayasaki for a D-rank mission before the Academy. She would arrive at the Academy early, while Naruto would arrive nearly late with Amayasaki, and she would observe Sasuke and the other clan heirs, while Genma trained Amayasaki. In the evenings after the Academy let out, she trained with Naruto – or more accurately, Naruto pulled pranks, and Amayasaki assisted, using it as a chance to pass on a little of what she learned to Naruto without him realizing she was training him – because their sensei wasn’t training him, barely looked at him, and all but ignored him except when to loudly criticize everything Naruto did wrong.

As she went out through the day, she kept her ears open for anything regarding the Uchiha, for Itachi and Shisui, for Hatake, for Naruto, for Genma, for Sasuke.

In listening for others, she found things about how others perceived Amayasaki. Being an Uzumaki, the wording was kinder because Uzu had been ingrained into the foundation of Konoha, but it was clear that she was a foreigner, an outsider, to Konoha. They wouldn’t outright treat her terribly, but it was clear in the little things done and said, that they didn’t trust her in the slightest. They found her too fire-y, too passionate, too sharp, too much. She knew she was watched by ANBU at times when nowhere near Naruto, though they had pulled back some when she went and broke into Hatake’s apartment – and knew that right there, had them watching her a little too close for comfort, as she acted like a potential seal master – and when around Genma, trusting them to take her down if she posed a threat. Many Konoha shinobi were just a little stilted, professional but nothing more – they interacted with her the least possible amount, and nothing more, and the longer she went with her primary interactions being with Naruto, and Genma, and to a degree, Hatake, the more it was clear that they would just watch her. She could be a Konoha shinobi in every way that mattered, but it would be nothing but in name when she was considered just a foreigner, one that didn’t belong in their ranks.

Sakura found herself thinking of something her mother had once said about the elite ninja – many of their quirks were purposely cultivated, exaggerated, because the village didn’t trust a shinobi that merely performed their job, that they were powerful, trained, killing machines. They found something that made them endearing, made them appear harmless, made them appear human – and not the monsters wearing human skin that they could be (were) – so that they could go about the village without being accosted as a threat.

She thought that Hatake’s little orange book, Asuma’s smoking, Genma’s senbon, were all quirks played up in part for just that purpose.

It made her wonder if the things she’d heard about Kushina being ramen-obsessed, which she didn’t doubt was real considering Naruto lived and breathed ramen, and such a love _had_ to be genetic, wasn’t her playing something up to make herself seem a little more harmless – seem less of a threat than the kunoichi in training who had defeated Uchiha Mikoto in taijutsu with one punch.

She wondered how well she could toe that line – appearing just harmless enough that the village wasn’t scared of her, and not so harmless that she wasn’t a serious threat for when they treated Naruto as a monster. She would play up her appreciation for ramen some, because she _did_ like Ichiraku’s ramen, and it would further prove she was an Uzumaki, but she could only so often eat three or more bowls of ramen – and not just because she was on a budget when supporting herself and Naruto with D-ranks – without having the Uzumaki appetite and stamina to work it off. She would find something that made her just a little bit more relatable to the masses, would give the shinobi something to find in common with her, because it would defeat the purpose of having Amayasaki come from outside Konoha, from outside Fire Country, if she wasn’t trusted enough to remain with Naruto, be trusted to take care of Naruto.

Not that she wouldn’t bare her teeth and insist _clan law_ if they ever deemed her too much of a threat – because _Uzumaki belong with Uzumaki_ , and she knew for a fact, that several of the older clans had similar clan laws, where as long as there was another clan member alive, even just one, orphans went to their clan. If she needed she would bring up aggressive adoption and claim Naruto as _hers_ , as _her kit_ to claim because _under eight and no one to fight for the kit, the kit is now an Uzumaki_ as ‘Uzumaki clan tradition’. Because Naruto had no one, and no one had made action to care for him other than Sandaime, even if she suspected that a few others had made motions and been denied by certain members of the Council, but she had more than a legitimate claim than anyone as Uzumaki Amayasaki, Naruto’s cousin and closest known living relative.

She had been looking for any number of ways to keep Naruto with her, and Amayasaki as an Uzumaki blood relation was still the best, most obvious, way, but she’d looked for back-up plans for if there ever came a day where (some) people tried to deny Naruto anyone.

Sakura had also looked for back-up plans to her back-up plans, for if (when) Amayasaki was denied completely, for when Amayasaki was found to be a fake, and had looked for someone to claim Naruto that had a legitimate claim that couldn’t be denied. She suspected that Naruto had godparents, but without access to his records – and even Sandaime couldn’t give her access, or more accurately, wouldn’t – and she wasn’t confident enough to believe she could do so without getting caught, she couldn’t find them. She couldn’t demand that they do their duty and take them into their care if she didn’t know their names. The only other person who could claim Naruto as their own – was Hatake Kakashi.

He had been the student of Namikaze Minato, the man she suspected (was sure) was Naruto’s father, and had been his charge (and like a son if what she’d heard had been correct) essentially following his father’s suicide early in the Third Shinobi War. If what she’d found regarding the Hatake was correct, was that they held more than a passing resemblance to the Inuzuka, only with wolves, and thus had a pack mentality – Minato would have been pack, and his son would be the pack’s cubs. It would explain why Hatake was so often on Naruto-watch, if he _needed_ to watch over and protect Naruto however he could. Considering he’d been thirteen when Naruto had been born, she could forgive him (some) for not being able to take over in raising Naruto then, but she suspected that if she played her cards right, she might trigger Hatake clan instincts, and have him claim Naruto as _his cub_ as par Hatake clan traditions of aggressive adoption.

Sakura found herself paying less attention at the Academy – as what they were learning, she’d learned from her mother, and could recite without thought – and more on how she might trigger Hatake clan instinct.

It was in watching Kiba squabble with Naruto over _his_ space, like he had any claim to that one area of the classroom, a growl in his voice and eyes like pinpricks, that she found herself of thinking to ask Hana.

Amayasaki showed up then, as the Academy day was almost over, and Sakura found that if she showed up before the day officially ended, she could stop how the sensei was holding Naruto back for punishment for no good reason (just because he could, and he hated Naruto).

She grinned her sharp smile at the sensei as she perched on the window sill, holding up a hand in greeting, “Yo,”, before flicking her eyes over to Kiba, “Hm, I can take him back to the compound if he’s causin’ trouble.”, moving to do so before the sensei could think to stop her. Amayasaki stepped between Naruto and Kiba, allowing the Inuzuka’s hit to connect with her chest, before she caught his arm and held it despite his struggles, letting her chakra prod lightly at his agitated system, soothing it like she would Naruto when he was worked up.

Kiba still continued to snarl and tried to tug his arm free, but slowly, his eyes became less like pinpricks, and Amayasaki smiled with her canines on display, but not threateningly, leaning over him slightly to blow air directly in his face. He sputtered indignantly, “What the hell, Uzumaki?!”, eyes narrowed at her, and she let his arm go, “Ma, you were actin’ territorial, Inuzuka-chan. You were going to hurt Naru-boi over _a seat_ , so I stepped in.”.

Pink dusted his cheeks, eyes flicking around them in a fierce glare to his classmates, who were already starting to snicker at her address, “I’m no _chan!_ ”, before turning it on her like he could set her on fire under the strength of it. Only, his cheeks had puffed out slightly in his indignation, and she had seen the look too many times on Naruto for it to really be effective anymore, almost reaching forward to pinch his cheek and coo at him because he looked _adorable_ , “I can call ya Inu-boi, if ya prefer.”.

His glare deepened, a low growl building in his throat, as she had just called him Little Dog, essentially called him just a puppy, and she just grinned wider at his response, “Ah, Inu-boi, I’m tempted to call ya Pup, but yer not _my_ pup – _Naruto_ is my kit.”. The growl faded as he realized she’d stepped in because he’d been falling prey to Inuzuka clan instincts, acting like their namesake, and she understood better than most anyone – if her reference to Naruto as a kit meant anything, that the Uzumaki were like foxes as Inuzuka were like dogs and the Hatake like wolves.

He crossed his arms over his chest, pouting slightly with a scowl, “Kaa-san would be real angry at you if you said I was. Not to mention Kaa-san would steal me back.”.

Amayasaki laughed even as Naruto climbed onto her back, wrapping his arms around her neck and legs around her waist, “Fair enough. Through you’re a cute puppy. As long as you don’t become a fox-hound, you’re hers. I might steal ya away if you start huntin’ foxes.”.

The bell rung then, signaling the end of classes.

Kiba’s face brightened then, about to run off, when she spoke up, “I have something I would like to discuss with your mother, or your sister, whoever would be willin’ ta talk wit’ me. I know the way to your compound, but I’m feelin’ like havin’ a race. Would ya indulge me?”, turning around with a glitter in his eye and grinning wide and sharp, “Hell yeah! I’m going to beat you, Uzumaki!”.

Naruto pipped up then, “Uh huh! Saki-nee-san will totally beat you, dattebayo!” flailing one arm to point down at Kiba, “She’s the bestest! Faster than your smelly ass!”.

Amayasaki sighed lightly, exasperated again at how Naruto persisted to curse, but having given up on trying to curtail it – not that she could be much better when she got going, she just internalized most of hers. People paid attention to children that cursed, and would tell their parents – no one in Naruto’s case, and the Inuzuka were fairly lax about that, and she’d once overheard Tsume speak an entire sentence of nothing but curses, so it wasn’t like the woman wouldn’t be a hypocrite for it, but someone would go running to her aunt in a heartbeat if she did.

Kiba stuck out his tongue, “No way! I’m an Inuzuka, no one beats us in a race!”, before taking off without a second thought.

Naruto thumped at her shoulder, “Saki-nee-san! He’s getting ahead!”, trying to motivate her forward because he hated to lose, and he knew that Sakura was just as bad, she just hid it better – but you could see it in how she couldn’t help herself when it came to doing well on their written exams, and needed to do well. He knew she would give any number of reasons, well-thought out and logical for whatever long-term plans she had, but he knew that when she knew she was good at something, that she would accept nothing but being the best. It was why she was so annoyed whenever somebody else got top marks in some test, and why she would give the Nara in their class a side-glare when she saw that he was in the lowest ranks of their year, because she said she knew that he would beat her every time with his high intellect but the other wasn’t even putting in the slightest effort to _try_.

He had heard more than one rant at how her mother could match Shikamaru’s father more often than not when it came to brains, and she wanted to prove herself her mother’s daughter, but _Shikamaru was being too much of a lazy ass for her to do that_.

She just smiled, before patting at his blonde spikes, “No, ya see, I’m letting him think that. Give him a moment to think he has the advantage. He forgets that I never said we couldn’t use chakra or jutsu – he’s just going to run.”, feeling him grin wide against her shoulder, “He he he he!”.

Giving a cheeky grin to the rest of the kids still there, most of them lingering to watch this, because this had been the first time she’d interacted with them beyond a glare or two for the kids who’d say mean things to Naruto during the day, she disappeared with the smallest flash of chakra smoke – for theatrics of course – and appeared outside the Academy.

Then she channeled chakra to her legs and took off at a dash, moving through the crowded streets and dodging pedestrians before passing Kiba in the final stretch, “Come on Inu-boi!”.

Naruto turned his head over his shoulder, using one hand to pull his bottom eyelid down in a taunt as he stuck his tongue out at Kiba, “Uzumaki!”.

She smirked as she turned and jogged backwards the last few steps, “That’s my name, don’t wear it out, Inu-boi.”, stopping at the entrance of the Inuzuka compound.

Kiba narrowed his eyes even as he panted lightly, jabbing his finger up at Naruto, but his eyes were on her, “You cheated!”.

Amayasaki shrugged, “I never said we couldn’t use chakra. I used what I knew, not just what you know as a standard. Cheatin’ means nothin’ to ninja – that’s samurai.”, before gesturing back at the compound, “Can you take me to your mother?”.

He pouted a little, crossing his arms, but had nothing to refute her, as she _was_ right.

Then he turned and walked right into the Inuzuka compound, Amayasaki with Naruto on his heels, calling out loudly, “KAA-SAN! WHERE ARE YOU?”.

A moment later there was a loud response, “KIBA! WHAT ARE YOU YELLING FOR?!”, before a taller, female version of Kiba with dark purple lipstick and a giant dog with an eyepatch at her side appeared, walking towards them.

Amayasaki blinked, glancing over at Kiba for a second, because it was eerie, he looked _just like_ his mother, and she wasn’t sure if that was saying something toward Kiba’s slight effeminateness or Tsume’s masculinity.

He jabbed a thumb towards her, even as Tsume’s eyes had sharpened at the sight of her, “Why is Uzumaki-san here?”, dog circling them, “She wanted to talk with you.”, before pouting, “She beat me at a race after she cheated too!”.

Amayasaki rolled her eyes at him, but didn’t once forget the dog at her back or the woman almost fingering her kunai pouch, as Naruto puffed up on her back, “Saki-nee-san is just better than you, dog breathe! She even gave you a head start!”, indignant, “Naru-boi . . ,”.

She sighed, “Tact, it is somethin’ I’ve been tryin’ to beat into yer head. _Try_ and use it.”, a resigned look on her face as Kiba puffed up in return, “Uh huh! I was just ahead. Lying fox face!”.

Slapping a hand over Naruto’s mouth before he could return the insult, having felt him bristle at the insult most commonly turned his way, even when he licked her hand to try and get her to remove it, she looked directly in Kiba’s eyes with a fox smile on her face, “What ya callin’ my kit? Inu-boi, do I need to remind you what I said about becoming a fox-hound? Because if you hunt a kit, ya goin’ to get an angry mother kitsune, and kitsune have been known to trick and trap inu on occasion _just for fun_.”.

He blinked, then looked down, mumbling, “Sorry, Uzumaki-san.”, shuffling his feet and looking like a scolded puppy, “’m not a fox-hound.”, even as Amayasaki looked over at his mother, seeing how her eyes had narrowed as she’d caught her metaphor about foxes and dogs. There was an approving glint in her eyes for managing to keep an Inuzuka in line, for protecting the child she’d claimed by tradition and law now, and a wary look, because she’d promised to mess with her son’s head if he messed with Naruto seriously in front of her.

Amayasaki smirked as she ruffled Kiba’s hair despite his squawking protests, “Such an adorable puppy. Good thing your kaa-san is so fierce, or someone would steal you away for their own.”.

She let Naruto slide off her back, ruffling his hair as well, “Naruto, run on ahead to Ichiraku’s, I’ll be there soon, okay?”, before gently pushing him forward even as he gave her a questioning glance, knowing she was doing something that involved him but didn’t want him to know much about – knowing better than to try to stay and overhear, because Sakura _always knew_ and she’d lectured him for a solid hour last time, not for doing so in the first place because she approved of that, but for failing so badly at it – and that she didn’t want him trying that on her until he could do it without her knowing.

Then she looked back at Tsume once Naruto had left, “Inuzuka-sama, I had a question for you.”.

The other woman waved Kiba off, following her example that this wasn’t something that needed their kids (Naruto being Amayasaki’s in all express purposes here) to overhear, “There’s puppies in the kennels, Kiba, go and see if one of them could be your ninken.”, who eagerly ran off, excited at possibly finding his companion and ignoring how he’d been dismissed.

Then she looked expectantly at Amayasaki, “What is it, Uzumaki-san?”, hand coming down to rest by her waist on her dog’s head.

Amayasaki nervously scratched at the back of her head, a bad habit she’d picked up from Naruto, not sure how she wanted to start this, “I know who Naruto’s father was – I mean, it’s obvious with his coloring.  I understand why it’s a secret – a badly hidden one if I was able to figure it out – and I only bring it up, because other than me, Naruto has no one. That’s unacceptable. His father’s students, one of them was Hatake Kakashi, yes?”.

Tsume’s eyes sharpened, other hand moving to her kunai pouch, because it had been something very close to an official secret in the village of who Naruto’s parents were, and it was obvious Amayasaki had figured Kushina was his mother just out of pure deduction of being the only Uzumaki in the village seven years ago, but his father was an S-class secret.

Amayasaki continued after a second, “I want him to be indisputably listed as Naruto’s next-of-kin if something happens to me. Only, I’m sure his father wouldn’t have listed him as Naruto’s godfather, because he’d been thirteen at the time. That means he needs something that the Council would respect – and I realized aggressive adoption, the Hatake had traditions about that. So, I need to know how to trigger his clan instincts to claim Naruto as his pup – preferably, short of leaving Naruto in mortal danger to do so.”.

Tsume crossed her arms, looking vaguely confused, “Huh, you would rather someone else claim your kit than see him alone.”, leaving unsaid that if there were any other Uzumaki, she would not go to such lengths because the Uzumaki had less of a history of aggressive adoption, as they tended to make alliances instead of child-hunt or aggressively adopt, but they had been fiercely possessive of their children to the point where if there was even a drop of Uzumaki blood, they were a Uzumaki.

Sakura didn’t view this as someone taking Naruto away, but as gaining another protector for Naruto, and said as much, “If I’m gone, then yes. Hatake-san _will_ do his duty if I have any say, and take care of Naruto in my absence. While I’m here, we’ll share Naruto – that boy needs every protector he can get, considering how little he is liked by the vast majority of the village.”.

Tsume let out a bark of laughter at how Amayasaki was all but radiating _Naruto is MINE_ , even if she was saying that she would accept another claim to him, but her eyes were serious, as she knew why the village hated Naruto, and agreed that if he lost Amayasaki after she had put herself in front of him, things would get _very_ bad for Naruto, and for the village in return because people were idiots.

She smirked at the younger girl, “Hm, I’ve heard a rumor that you’ve been getting into his apartment. Get Naruto-chan’s scent in there so he comes to associate it with safety, with home. Just spend time with him, interact and work your way into his life to an irremovable degree, then make him seek _you_ out – in seeking you out, he’ll be acting like he’s looking for a missing pack member, so expect him to be a bit aggressive in your reunion.”.

Amayasaki nodded, mind working through ways to start on that, when she abruptly stilled, eyes widening before they narrowed aggressively, lip curling to bare her teeth in a silent snarl, going quiet in the way the only truly dangerous could go when threatened.

It had become habit to extend her senses whenever Naruto was away from her to keep an eye on his chakra signature, and didn’t often require much attention or thought because Naruto was so vibrant, so bright, so large of a signature, that she often paid little actual attention to specific details. Now though, now she could feel the distress and pain bubbling through his chakra signature.

In between one breathe and the next, her chakra surged in response, a sharp screech of _how dare you, how dare you HURT him, I’m going to make you bleed for that_ , and her fingers moved as fast as they could go for shunshin, focusing not on a place, but on Naruto. She cared little about running her reserves dry, about the possible chakra exhaustion this would cause because she was pressing for as far as she could go and then some, because Naruto was a little too far away.

She didn’t see how Tsume watched her, eyes sharpening as it didn’t take a genius to know why she would become enraged between one second and the next, and knew that if they were anything alike – if Naruto died because of some fool, the village would consider the sealed nine-tails nothing to an enraged Uzumaki who had lost their kit, because Amayasaki would rip apart anyone who stood in her way.

Sparks skittered away from her feet as she disappeared from the Inuzuka compound, then reappeared in a stumble directly in front of a knocked-down Naruto. She panted from the exertion as she bared her teeth at the group of three chuunin, “What the _fuck_ are you doing?”, eyes flicking around and trying to find the ANBU that should have been here, the kunai in her side just an irritation when there were bigger problems. She knelt down without looking back, reaching backwards to feel for Naruto, other hand reaching into her pouch for the exploding tags she’d been playing around with, fingering the one modified towards lightning.

Her eyes flashed murder when she felt blood on his thigh, his hands clutching at her sleeve tight, “S-saki-nee-chan,”, trying to scoot closer to hide behind her, because he was _afraid_. He’d been beaten on before, not many times before the masked shinobi stepped in, but never had it escalated to drawing blood before. Never had his life been at risk before, never had another stepped in and promised loss of life for him.

Sakura was unaware of the killing intent she was beginning to put off as her eyes narrowed at the three drunks, one of which sneered, “Removing the monster from our village, outsider.”. She snarled as she flung a kunai with the shock tag attached at their feet, “He’s _not_ a monster!”, watching as they sluggishly moved back, but not so far that they were out of range of the tag as it went off with a brush of her chakra.

They went rigid, muscles spasming, and she wasted no time, gently removing Naruto’s hands from her sleeve as she darted forward toward them, grabbing their pouches full of weapons and tossing them back towards Naruto, then making three clones and giving two a weapon each to hold against the three’s necks.

She knew that if they fought back, she didn’t stand a chance, not out-numbered and without the skill needed to overcome that, not to mention the warm blood leaking down her side, but she would fight to the last beat of her heart to protect Naruto.

Their eyes were angry, but she wasn’t focused on them – her eyes had drifted to where Hatake had arrived, moving behind the one in front of her, his kunai against his neck opposite her kunai, “Shinobi-san, what is this?”.

Her lip curled further up, and she answered before the chuunin could, “These _bastards_ thought to ‘remove’ a ‘monster’ from Konoha – they tried to _kill_ Naruto!”, gesturing back to where a third clone was putting pressure on the stab wound to Naruto’s thigh, Naruto digging through a pouch for bandages to make a tourniquet like the clone was instructing.

Hatake’s dark eye flashed, voice a soft growl, “What.”, kunai pressing hard enough in to draw a bead of blood as he leaked some killing intent of his own.

At that moment, two Uchiha arrived, “Hatake-san, explain this situation _now_.”, kunai in hand as they took in the situation of the two of them holding kunai to three unarmed chuunin and the bleeding child on the ground, the killing intent passing between the two enough to make their hearts beat faster in fear.

Amayasaki’s vision blurred then, and she blinked rapidly to try and clear it, hand shaking slightly despite her best efforts, the red splotch at her side growing worryingly large. Her eyes were wide as she looked at Hatake, two of her clones popping against her will as blood dripped from her nose, “H-hatake-san,”.

His narrowed eye turned from the two Uchiha to her, widening slightly at his pupil dilated as he realized some of the heavy scent of blood here was from her, moving quickly to jab a point in the three chuunin’s necks before anyone could blink, putting away his kunai to press a hand to her wound. The two Uchiha quickly bound the two, pulsing their chakra to bring a clansman over, “Hatake-san, I expect to hear an explanation about this scene soon, but take her to the hospital first.”.

Amayasaki caught Hatake’s hand, shaking her head even as she reached out for Naruto, “Naruto first. They stabbed him close to an artery.”, her clone nodding as they finished the make-shift tourniquet, then despite paling, scooped up Naruto in her arms.

Hatake frowned, then made a clone of his own, taking Naruto into his arms moments before her clone popped when even her will faded her.

He leaped up to a roof, clone following seconds later, and rushed off to the hospital, a snarl caught in his throat because _they had nearly died_. White chakra seeped from his hands without thought, clinging to their own as his instincts demanded because _they were just pups, one the pup of pack_. His mind was flashing between what he would demand happen to those three chuunin for hurting the pups of his pack, heirs to a (second) Noble Clan once he made it official, and how he could make it quite clear they were (now) part of the Hatake Clan.

Sakura pressed her hand on top of his, squeezing it as she fought the intense pain, making him glance down for a moment at her, and her eyes were fierce as she met his, “Hatake, I’m going to refuse treatment until Naruto is taken care of. I’ll survive until the wound is at least seen to, but his looks to be within a finger’s width of an artery.”. They communicated silently that she wouldn’t budge on this, that even dying, she would deliver her wrath (he thought Kushina’s too) to anyone who refused to heal Naruto.

Behind his mask, his lips thinned, eyes narrowing at her, because he knew fatal wounds and she had one, she would die in the hour, maybe less if the medic was even slightly incompetent. He could tell she knew as well by the set of her jaw, but they both knew if Naruto’s artery had been nicked, he had maybe ten minutes.

He knew that thanks to the monster sealed on his stomach, that Naruto would likely be healed in another few minutes, but he doubted she knew just how fast and how much the fox could heal. To her, the wound was fatal, and the blonde would be dead in minutes. He knew that in her mind, he was the priority for triage.

It said a lot about her confidence in _iry_ _ō-nin_ , that she didn’t even consider that there would be more than one competent one available. (Not that he completely disagreed – he himself thought there were perhaps six he would trust to heal him, one of whom were dead, another might as well been dead, and the third had been gone from the village for decades. It was honestly why he skipped out of the hospital so much right after he was healed, to harass his medically trained neighbor to make sure any major wounds were healed correctly and he could take care of anything lesser thanks to the might-as-well-be-dead medical-nin.)

It said a lot about the situation for those foreign-born in Konoha (and Naruto) that he saw Amayasaki, face tense and lined with pain, cold sweat on her temples, raise one hand over her wound, pulling chakra to the appendage that flickered a soothing green, trying to heal her own wound even when she was literally scrapping the last dregs of her chakra, as if she didn’t believe they would heal her. Didn’t believe they would try to heal Naruto, not just because of his monster, but because it would be one less foreigner amongst Konoha’s ranks.

His eye was dark in anger as he came into the hospital, killing intent barely leashed, immediately surrounded by nurses until they saw Naruto. Half of them fled, even as his neighbor tried to reach for Amayasaki, “Hatake, what happened.”.

The girl tried to lean away, moving regardless of the pain her scrambling must have been causing her as she reached for Naruto, “Him first!”. He carefully but firmly held onto her so she didn’t fall, preening a little inside that she trusted him not to drop her, even as he brought his clone closer so that she didn’t continue to try and flail to reach Naruto, “They were stabbed; him in the thigh near the artery, and her in the side, both losing a fair bit of blood in the last ten minutes or so.”.

The man’s eyes sharpened behind his glasses, as they were just children and this had clearly happened inside the village, placing one glowing green hand on her side to assess the extent of the damage there. His jaw was clenched as he found two organs had been nicked even as he was surprised to see that she’d been guiding, was guiding, what little remained of her chakra through the wound, trying and succeeding, if slowly, to pull the wound closed.

She bared her teeth at him, nails digging into his hand as she caught it, “Naruto first!”, pupils dilated under the pain and adrenaline still coursing through her veins but still very much aware. Making it clear that she would fight him on this, if he refused to comply with her wishes.

His lips thinned as he wasn’t in the practice of stopping treatment half-way, particularly not for obstinate patients (it was why he’d earned Hatake’s respect, when he refused to let the man bleed to death in his apartment after he came home too soon), but could see she was resolute on this, suspected she’d gained this wound protecting the blonde boy, and nodded slightly, before letting his chakra finish at least sealing the wounds internally. He wouldn’t tolerate such behavior, but considering that none of his nurses were approaching the blonde – and he knew they would claim it was because of Hatake’s killing intent and not because they were scared of the boy – he would let it slide for now, until he assured her that the boy wasn’t going to die in the next thirty seconds.

He moved the step to the side, and saw clearly the hand the girl had extended toward the boy, barely resting on his thigh, the same flickering green chakra he’d felt inside her sparking off her fingers, trying to catch on the nearly healed wound on his leg. Resting a hand gently on top of hers, he probed lightly at the boy’s wound, or what remained of it, as he could literally feel darker inhuman chakra knit flesh together faster than most skilled medics, feeling how her light chakra assisted the more delicate work of knitting together formerly severed nerves and blood vessels.

Considering she had to be entirely self-taught, and going more by instinct than any refined skill, and thus didn’t have nearly enough practice – not to mention he knew her reserves were nearly completed drained – he wasn’t surprised in the least when she slumped unconscious a few moments later. Through he suspected only _after_ her chakra had seen that the boy was no longer in any danger of dying from that wound.

From there, now that she was unable to fight him, he had Hatake take her to an empty room, the blonde squirming in the jounin’s arms until he could clasp the girl’s hand tightly, “Saki,”.

Hatake looked mildly alarmed behind his mask when tears came to blue eyes, but they didn’t fall as they both watched quietly as he healed the wound quickly.

When the wound was well on the way to recovery, through it would be tender for a few more days because he had healed the wound but not the bruising – he was curious to see if her chakra, when replenished, would take care of that or not, so he could see if her healing ability was instinctive or deliberate because bruising was more difficult than cuts and required actual skill in medical ninjutsu –  he looked directly at Hatake, “Explain how we got here, Hatake, or I’ll make sure one of my nurses leave a little surprise in whatever wound you come in next with.”.

The man didn’t even get a chance to answer before the boy spoke up loudly, swinging one arm wildly as he gestured, “Saki-nee-chan got hurt protecting me! Those bastards found me on my way to Ichiraku’s, where nee-chan was having me wait for her as she talked with Kiba’s kaa-san, and POW! Knocked me down! I was gonna take him out at the knees, when the bastard stabbed me! He was comin’ back for a second swing when BAM! Nee-chan popped out of nowhere! She got in the way of the kunai, but she didn’t care – she was going to kick their asses! Zapped them! Then the Old Man here showed up and knocked them out!”.

He was gesturing so widely that he whacked the clone hard enough to dispel it, and flailed for a second as he fell before Hatake caught him by the back of shirt.

Hatake’s eye narrowed at the description of the scene he had come upon, realizing that she’d sunk all of her chakra into that shunshin trying to get to Naruto, coming into that situation injured and tettering on the edge of chakra exhaustion, yet had still managed to disarm and momentarily disable three chuunin while simultaneously trying to keep Naruto and herself alive without bleeding out. He would be surprised that she managed such a thing, because she was essentially regarded at the level of an older Academy student, but she was an Uzumaki.

There were notes in Hatake records about Uzumaki, ever generation that even just met one, and he knew personally from Kushina, that Uzumaki didn’t know the word _impossible_. If they set out to do it, an Uzumaki _would_. It made sense then that an almost-genin managed to best three chuunin (even if they were drunk – but that was also why the scenario had probably happened in the first place) while seriously injured, and still manage to protect and even begin to treat a different serious wound.

His anger grew through at hearing this, because she’d tried to a jutsu she knew she wasn’t ready for, not for that distance, knew would drain her reserves, because she felt that she had to (and he would be doing some less than subtle prodding to find out who was on guard duty for Naruto, and seriously reprimand them for failing their mission) and indeed had to, because it sounded like that in a few moments more, Naruto may have been dead.

Sakura woke before he could say something, or think about hunting those chuunins down and returning her pain upon them.

Her pupils dilated and she was shifting in her cot, fingers brushing across the seal at her wrist to pull out a kunai, and nearly leaping toward the bespectacled doctor if Hatake hadn’t moved and caught her wrists.

There was something fond in his eye she bared her teeth at him before she blinked rapidly a few times, mind catching up and no longer just reacting.

Naruto darted forward, “Saki!”, nearly tackling her in his exuberant hug, “You’re awake!”.

She sighed and brushed a hand through his hair, his body relaxing in reflex as the monster in his belly had come to associate the motion with her calming chakra, “Yes, Naru-chan. I am. Would you move your arms lower or higher, you landed on my bruise.”.

He leapt back, flailing a little to keep his balance, before pouting, “But I love you! I didn’t even get my ramen before I was attacked – I need extra affection today to make up for that.”, having forgot that Sakura had left a clone as herself this day, like most days at the Academy, because she’d planned to make Genma introduce her to the Uchiha Military Police, and he could have dispelled her clone and revealed what she was doing. She rolled her eyes at his pout, “Thanks, maybe later.”.

Hatake spoke up then, one hand shuffling around in his front pouch for his little orange book absently, “Later, Naruto.”.

Sakura noticed something then, feeling a chakra resonate in her – it hadn’t been immediately noticed because the small amount had settled in her core, swirling around in what remained of her own – that seemed to rumble affectionately in the close presence of Hatake. Narrowing her eyes in concentration as she let her chakra gently poke the white chakra, which stretched out like a sleeping dog waking before it moved through her chakra pathways, stimulating chakra regrowth.

Turning to Naruto, she could see that the white chakra had settled in him as well, but it was harder to notice amongst all that darker, heavy chakra that tended to make his chakra signature burn like fox fire. The two chakra seemed to be slowly circling each other, not sure on how to react with the other foreign chakra.

Looking at Hatake, she could see that his chakra was a pale blue-tinted white, was the source of the white chakra amongst their own chakra, and she thought that her little plan to lure Hatake into acknowledging his clan instincts might no longer be needed if that chakra meant what she thought it meant.

Her eyes narrowed at him, having made no intention of getting aggressively adopted, but she was thinking she had been when she was seeing how he was standing by the wall nearest the door, body tense with one hand by his hip as if he was ready to attack the next person to come into the room. If she was reading his face right as well, he had the smallest of pouts going on, and her lips twitched with the urge to laugh as she realized he wasn’t exactly pleased that he’d adopted two kids either without some forethought.

Considering she didn’t exactly have any intention of telling him that she had been counting on him adopting Naruto in the near future, nor that she knew a fair amount of details from records, the silence was getting awkward with Hatake having no intention of talking and saying what had happened.

Which was broken when there was a polite knock on the door.

Two seconds later, the door slid open to reveal a woman that looked very much like Itachi, with her longer hair up with a pair of hair pins, and wearing a dark blue plain kimono with the Uchiha kamon broadly displayed across her back. She smiled gently when she saw them, pushing Sasuke into the room, “Go play with Naru-chan, Sasu-chan, while I speak with Amayasaki-chan and Kakashi-chan.”.

Sasuke pouted, but didn’t argue as he moved toward where Naruto was swinging his legs off Amayasaki’s bed, carrying two scrolls, a little inkpot, and two ink brushes. He put the things down next to Naruto, before facing him with his hands on his hips with a small glare on his face that said _do as I say or else_ but the little pout still twisting his lips ruined it a little, “Kaa-san had me bring this stuff so I could practice my writing while she talked with your onee-san. She thought you might want to draw.”.

Amayasaki spoke up as Naruto started to grin, mischief twinkling in his eyes at having his rival right there and _giving_ him _ink_ , “Naruto, you should as well. Not everyone can read your chicken scratch. Wouldn’t want you to end up like Hatake-san over here, who has to redo every third mission report because no one can read his chicken scratch.”.

Hatake turned to her with a narrowed eye, “Ma, Uzumaki-chan, where’d you hear that?”, mildly offended.

She shrugged, “Eh, heard it around. Someone was saying as much when I passed by the mission room lookin’ for Genma-sempai,”, eyes bright with her own mischief – having found out when the recently assigned to the mission room, Umino-sensei, ranted at him for the terrible appearance of his mission reports – as her eyes flickered to where Mikoto was smiling in amusement, “Kakashi-chan.”.

Sakura felt a little like Hana when she heard Shisui call Itachi ‘chan’, hearing Hatake be called ‘chan’, because she was _never_ giving this up. It was too funny to see how his eye narrowed at her, but his whole frame sagged a little for a pout, a small whine in his voice, “Mikoto-san, it was bad enough you used to call me that when I came around because of Obito, and I was able to keep him quiet because you called him ‘Obi-chan’, but did you have say it where children can hear it? I’m a full-grown man with the rank of jounin, not a ‘chan’.”.

She grinned wide as she heard the barely muffled childish giggling from both Sasuke and Naruto, waving him off, “But Kakashi- _chan_ has such a ring to it. It fits with the theory that you wear a mask because you’re _pretty_. The civilian wives giggle _so_ much about that one. Through I think the reigning theory is that you do it to be _mysterious_ , and started it because when you were promoted so young, no one took you seriously with your baby-face.”.

There was a moment of stunned blinking from him, partially because for her to know that much, she’d had to investigated into him some (and not just casually), and he’d heard nothing about her looking into him, and partially because he kept updated fairly regularly thanks to Genma about the current theories regarding why he wore a mask, but for her to know what the current favorite was (and they tended to cycle), she was closely tied to his gossip.

He caught Mikoto giving her a ghost of a considering glance, remembering Obito saying that his aunt (and mother-figure considering his own mother had died when he was little, and Mikoto had basically adopted her older brother’s child when they were both gone) was incredibly intelligent, and subtle, with ears everywhere; That she could have you doing exactly what she wanted before you even realized that you were helping her – That she was always informed, and thus little surprised her. He thought that he saw something approving in her eyes when looking at Amayasaki, and a small shiver went down his spine at the thought of the Uchiha matriarch gaining a protégé, on top of the legacy that her son Itachi was becoming.

The woman made a soft noise, “Hm, what do _you_ think, Amayasaki-chan?”, eyes sharp, curious to see if Amayasaki had just gotten the rumors about the mask, or if she had found the _real_ why.

Amayasaki’s eyes flicked to Sasuke and Naruto, who were doing a terrible job hiding how they were listening in, telling them both that she _had_ ; that she had heard about Hatake Sakumo, the mission that he had abandoned for the sake of his teammates, and how the village had treated both Hatake.

Kakashi’s eye was sharp on her, as his feelings on his father, and his suicide because of that one mission, were volatilely mixed still, nearly a decade later, and he didn’t appreciate anyone talking about it. That she was keeping mute on that, for his sake, made something that had tightened at the knowledge people were still gossiping about his father loosen a little, and reminded him that for all Amayasaki was in that halfway-state of being trained and recognized as an official shinobi, her instincts to be were very much there. She had sought out information, found it, and was hoarding it, wouldn’t give it up without a serious incentive (if that). He remembered Kushina, just as Mikoto must have been, because they both realized that if she was anything like her cousin, that nothing short of death (and even then, that was debatable) would make her give up a secret that she felt needed guarding.

They both remembered hearing about one mission, not long after Kushina had been promoted to chuunin, where everything had gone sideways and she’d been taken captive for two weeks, tortured for information while captive. That Kushina had been one of the two survivors, and hadn’t broken, hadn’t given up a thing, before escaping within a week and being hunted for another week, running directly into Minato, who had been leading her retrieval team.

Mikoto smiled, somehow layering polite manners over sharp, vicious pleasure, making both chakra-sensitives in the room tense – reminding them both that for all she was subtle, a master manipulator, that Mikoto had been _close friends_ with Kushina, and some of that animalistic behavior had (clearly) rubbed off – because her chakra had spiked with low-level killing intent, “Ah, good, Amayasaki-chan, good.”.

She tilted her head slightly in a gesture her son tended to mimic when finding something _curious_ , “Hm, Shiranui Genma is your sensei, correct?”.

Amayasaki felt the urge to back up a step under her gaze, finding it deeply unsettling to be the focus of attention in a way she had been trying very hard to avoid, and doubly so because if Mikoto found anything amiss, that was the _end_ of this game. But she didn’t, because she hadn’t backed down yet when it came to Naruto, and met her gaze evenly, knowing that this was exactly what she needed to assist Itachi and Shisui. Mikoto was exactly the bridge needed to connect Amayasaki to the Uchiha, to remind the village that they were _there_ and _one of them_ , “Hai, he prefers Genma-sempai though.”.

Mikoto brought her hands together, tapping her fingertips against each other, “Well, you still need a woman to teach you things he can’t.”.

It was left unspoken that Mikoto was offering to do so.

Sakura nodded slightly, as she understood that even if this was far more than she’d been hoping to get in interactions with Mikoto, that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She wouldn’t pass this up, didn’t think she could afford to if she was honest with herself.

Kunoichi only made up of roughly twenty percent of shinobi forces to begin with, and when roughly eighty to ninety percent of those were from shinobi clans, it left those like her, without a kunoichi in the family (alive), to be miss out on generations of teachings and knowledge, of finding that line between subtle kunoichi and strong shinobi. Sakura was sure that the reason why so few girls from civilian families, not just didn’t want to be kunoichi, but _could_ was because they didn’t have someone telling them that _they could_ , didn’t see one, and then didn’t succeed as often because unlike the boys who had not just their fathers, but their sensei, could approach most any of the shinobi population and be capable of learning their styles, those girls didn’t. Civilian-raised kunoichi in particular didn’t have any of those; didn’t have the connections to even find someone to fill that gap.

Without her mother, Sakura was left at a disadvantage to most of her classmates without someone teaching her personally – and in this, Genma didn’t really count because he was acting in the capacity of an Academy tutor for her, teaching her what she would learn in the Academy (just years ahead because he wasn’t aware she was enrolled). Mikoto was offering to teach her beyond the Academy curriculum – in the areas that were their shared strengths.

Sakura understood that this would make her a legacy of Mikoto – that Mikoto was offering her name and reputation as shelter, as aid.

She smiled at the woman, thankful more than words could convey.

Mikoto smiled back, smile softer now but still no less sharp as Sakura’s sharpened in silent promise, because they both knew that was as binding as a contract, this agreement between student and teacher of two noble clans. Until Mikoto released her, they were student and teacher, master and disciple, regardless of official status or what village records said.

She settled into the chair at Amayasaki’s bedside, across the room from Kakashi, and addressed her son, “Sasu-chan, how is your practice going?”.

Sasuke smiled at his mother as he held up his scroll, the characters big and bold, tails a little shaky, but they were overall clear and legible, proud of his work.

Amayasaki glanced at Naruto’s scroll, some of his characters very large and other smears because he couldn’t do such fine strokes yet, some strokes shaky and others bleeding ink, making most of his (despite having been writing the same characters as Sasuke) unreadable. She smiled kindly, a tight grip on the anger that still reared up at how until she’d found out, Naruto had been completely unable to read or write, able to recognize some out of familiarity, but purposely left unable to learn unless told verbally (something that would have been unlikely, and purposely harmful as Naruto’s attention span when sitting still was nearly nonexistent unless he was interested). As such, this was fantastic progress as she could decipher what he had meant to write, “Good job, Naruto. I’m proud of your progress.”.

Naruto puffed up out of where he’d been slouching in shame, beaming at Sakura, as her praise meant the world to him.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura could see how both Kakashi and Mikoto has shifted nearly unnoticeably if she hadn’t been watching specifically for it, straightening in attention at how she’d praised terrible writing. They both could figure out that if Amayasaki was praising Naruto for progress for writing that was nigh on unreadable, that he likely hadn’t known how to write (or read) prior to Amayasaki’s arrival, something that stroke a major cord with them. It was Konoha law that all children learn to read and write the common dialect to functional degree, to at least read the signs posted around Konoha, and for Academy students to start to learn the Konoha-specific dialect after that first day. For them, this verged on insulting because both of his parents had been very well-read, and it was appearing like Naruto had been denied the ability to read.

She ignored this, despite have essentially set the two to finding and reprimanding everyone involved with Naruto’s neglect (because she knew that the two could figure out very quickly that this would have been the least neglectful thing done, and would proceed to rip the people she didn’t have the standing to even approach let alone threaten and rail against, a new one). She would have preferred to have been the one on a one-man crusade to right all the wrongs done to Naruto (and there had been _many_ ), but had figured out very quickly that she didn’t have the backing or reputation yet to have her threats mean anything, and thus needed others. It had been the secondary reason she’d been looking to make Kakashi step up for Naruto.

Mikoto was just a bonus; a most glorious, vengeful bonus.

She had done her research, thank you; Uchiha were not people you went against when they perceived as themselves as being right and just in a course of action.

There was a red-tint to Mikoto’s eyes as she stood, perhaps about to leave, when Amayasaki smiled at her, a sharpness in her eyes, “Mikoto-sama, would you mind if Naru-boi and Sasu-chan continued their little playdate in your company?”.

The woman looked at the boys, who’d both pouted and turned away from each other, disliking being in close quarters with each other as they were like oil and water, rivals in Naruto’s words, and smiled, “I don’t mind at all Amayasaki-chan, I would be delighted to.”. She understood that Amayasaki was offering her trust in asking her to watch Naruto, particularly after such a scare, as well as that Amayasaki wanted a moment alone with Kakashi that she didn’t want Naruto to hear.

That both boys were pouting, not protesting as both knew that the women in their lives were not to be argued with, but clearly wanting to express their displeasure with this course of action, was honestly adorable.

Sakura thought that Sasuke looked like a sulking kitten, and was finding it hard not to laugh.

Mikoto held a hand for each boy, “Come on boys, Ita-chan is home today, and I want to make some dango.”, which they took, before leaving.

The moment the three were gone, and Kakashi and Sakura were alone, Sakura turned narrowed eyes at him, killing intent starting to seep from her, “ _What the hell happened?_ Is this how Konoha treats its citizens? Hated and free to be killed by shinobi?”.

She didn’t let Kakashi get a word in, “I came to Konoha for Naruto. I stayed because Naruto needs me, and he would never leave. He could have died today, and it probably won’t cross his mind to even think about leaving. I’m not stupid, I know Naruto wouldn’t be allowed to leave Konoha even if he was to be just a regular citizen. Now that I’ve sworn allegiance, neither would I for similar reasons other than one I don’t know.”, leaning forward to jab a finger in his direction, “If some fucker every crosses a lie Sandaime set regarding Naruto’s wellbeing again, I won’t just slaughter them.”, eyes dark with promise and voice heavy with threat, “I’ll take him and go. Konoha will never find us again. I won’t tolerate this. _I won’t_.”.

Sakura didn’t have say _Stop these fucking idiots infesting our village from hurting Naruto_.

Kakashi was quick to note even as rage boiled beneath his skin at the idea of an incident like this happening again, that she said _Konoha_. She was implying that _he_ was fine, as long as he came independent of Konoha.

It was a challenging concept for him – Hatake were loyal before all else. The idea that he could act against the village’s interests was not easy for him, but Naruto was pack. Pack came before all else.

He gave a small nod, not willing to verbalize any sort of potentially treasonous statement when he couldn’t be 100% sure that a mask wasn’t listening in, even if he was 98% sure.

Sakura smiled with sharp teeth at his understanding, pleased that they’d come to agreement – Naruto came before all else.

The two fell into a silence then, things remained unspoken but neither wanted to broach such just yet. (Kakashi didn’t want to explain how he’d accidentally adopted both her and Naruto. Sakura wasn’t going to explain that she had a fair idea of what he’d done because she’d been intending to make him be protective over Naruto.)

It wasn’t quite awkward, but it was a bit uncomfortable as they sorted out their thoughts. (Sakura was trying to figure out where to go from here – as she’d not begun planning for what happened after Naruto was adopted by Kakashi, had just begun to make plans for having him adopt Naruto. Kakashi was trying to figure out how to make it official he’d claimed Naruto and Amayasaki without drawing attention to how he was a clan head so he didn’t have to go to Council meetings, and how to tell Naruto and Amayasaki he _had_ adopted them, unintentionally.)

The quiet was broken by how they felt a chakra, brimming over with agitation and worry, was marching straight towards them.

Amayasaki smiled as she recognized who it was, giving a friendly little wave even as the door slammed open, “Yo,”.

Kakashi gave her a side-look, wondering if she was doing that to mock him, or because she’d watched him so much as to pick up that mannerism, “Uzumaki-chan!”.

Hikari looked a little ruffled, pale gold hair askew and dark eyes wide as they anxiously searched her, lingering on the slash of cloth and blood-stain before losing most of what little color she had. Words seemed to escape her for a moment as she moved closer, eyes stuck on her side.

Sakura felt bad now, for being injured, because here was somebody who was upset Amayasaki was hurt, could have died. She wanted to offer a promise that such a thing would never happen again, and perhaps she could have if she knew that if Naruto was in danger, she wouldn’t jump to protect, but she was going to be a shinobi, and making such a promise would be nothing but empty falsities and they all knew it.

Amayasaki smiled at Hikari, a soft little one meant to reassure, “Hikari-san, I wasn’t expectin’ you. How’d you know I was here?”, because the woman was working herself into a state, clearly wanting to touch and double-check that she was fine but unwilling to cross that boundary without permission.

Hikari darted forward when Amayasaki moved enough to fully expose her side to her, giving her permission to see for herself, “Your chakra spiked with distress and anger before fading out nearly completely. Most of us immigrants got here because we may not have had the temperament for becoming shinobi, or the depths of chakra considered necessary, but we had enough sensitivity to read basic chakra signatures. It was what allowed us to escape our home villages. Here, it lets us know where people are. Even the most insensitive of us knew when someone had hurt Naruto, because your chakra told us, then your signature all but disappeared.”.

It was unsaid but very clear; _you worried us_.

Sakura was touched at the concern, felt terrible for making them worry, but touched that someone was worried over her – someone other than Naruto.

She knew why only Hikari was there too, because it was the same reason why the immigrants didn’t meet in more than groups of three – it made Konoha nervous when foreigners congregated.

Hikari’s eyes flickered to Kakashi, straightening some in pride because _they were not ashamed to care for Amayasaki_ , “The others would have come with, but you know how Konoha gets nervous when we meet in more than small groups. We didn’t want you to get in trouble because a bunch of Kiri immigrants, and some Kumo and Iwa with some from smaller villages as well, gathered around you.”.

Kakashi clearly got the message, and that in the few months Amayasaki had been there, she’d befriended many of the immigrants to Konoha, who like her, because they were foreign-born, were held in eternal suspicion and at arms’ length. He could very easily see why Konoha might be uneasy at the idea of all immigrants congregating, because while there weren’t more than a hundred, just a small single digit percentage of Konoha’s population, they were all from places that Konoha wasn’t exactly on good terms with. Even he, pleased that Amayasaki had support, was mildly concerned at how easy she’d gained loyalty from those disenfranchised immigrants – and how easy it would be for Amayasaki to suggest something to them, something that acted against Konoha, and they would go along with it, if they were half as loyal as he suspected they were.

Sakura was touched that all the immigrants she’d reached out to cared; Hikari continued, baring sharp teeth as she softly snarled while glaring at Amayasaki’s healed wound, “This _won’t_ happen again. I refused to be worried that you’ll be hurt, that Naru-chan will be hurt, in village. Most of us left our home villages because we were sick of worrying about our loved ones disappearing, never to be seen again, from the village. We were tired of having our families torn apart because the village hated who we were.”, a low-level killing intent rolling off her in waves, “The next _fucker_ to hurt our Uzu babies will experience the Bloody Mist.”.

Amayasaki laughed with a vicious edge, surprised at not just the loyalty, but the depth of it for immigrants who knew they balanced on a knife’s edge of suspicion and would disappear themselves if it was even thought they were planning something against Konoha, would declare that. She’d never set out to get that loyalty, but found herself pleased non-the-less, because they were not just loyal to her, but to Naruto.

She found herself thinking that when Naruto became Hokage, that the village may finally become one cohesive unit because they would be loyal to Naruto in a way they weren’t to Sandaime, would finally be able to tighten ranks and worry less about internal strife. It had just been her intention to gather as many details as needed to make Amayasaki as authentic as possible, maybe learn as much as she could about the other Hidden Villages to prepare herself for when she met them on the battlefield, and she might have just started building a support base for Naruto as Hokage.

Sakura thought her mother might have been proud of her for this.

She gave a sharp-toothed grin to Hikari, laying her hand atop the older woman’s, “I don’t think you’ll ever understand how much your support means to me, and to Naruto. May I return the favor in official patronage? Let me offer my protection in name.”.

Sakura didn’t let her eyes flicker to Kakashi, letting her words to Hikari allude to her knowledge of their connection now, “Hang the Uzumaki kamon at the homes and shops of all those who worried. For those who wish, wear it as vassals of the clan. Let us show in force that Uzu may be gone, but the clan lives, will thrive. I will invest a money stipend in shops of those carrying my kamon when I have the funds.”.

Tears budded in Hikari’s eyes, as she, like many who had fled their home villages, left clans behind or were the last of their own with the bloodline purges, had resigned themselves of never having a kamon to proudly display. Konoha had given them new homes, without the risking of being purged for their blood (even if the risk of being purged for where they were raised remained), able to build new families, make new friends. But many of them had shelved the possibility of wearing a kamon ever again, ever being considered part of a clan again. She wondered if Amayasaki knew how much this meant to those like her, saw the determined glint in her grey-blue eyes, and thought that yes, she did.

The idea of money helping many of their struggling shops was kind, but just a bonus.

The chance to wear the Uzu kamon with pride was the real reward, and one that no words would be able to convey exactly how much it meant to them.

Kakashi spoke up, eye flickering to Amayasaki as he realized that she understand at least partially that he’d bound them together, wondered how much she understood of aggressive adoption, some part of him pleased (and another vaguely concerned) about the loyalty being shown to Amayasaki and Naruto, and knowing that Amayasaki, as essentially a genin, was making very little, and would not have much funds to offer – and not for a long time until she made at least chuunin, “The Hatake stands with the Uzumaki. I have money, and not much use for it. Use some of it.”.

Sakura blinked, having long-ago realized that Kakashi’s connection to the Uzumaki was enough for him to be invested in Naruto, even if Naruto hadn’t been the son of his sensei, but having not thought that he would be willing to stand with the clan like the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka did for each other. She did wonder how much of this was because in his eyes, they were now pack, and pack helped one another.

Something told her it was a combination of both, because she doubted that just one would have gotten the legendarily stingy man to have given up more than a few coins.

Hikari was all but preening with pride at not just proudly displaying the Uzu kamon in an official show of patronage (and intended to show her newly-won vassal status to the clan in short order), but at being invested in as part of her patronage. Amayasaki had already been investing in as many of their shops as she could anyway, a little here and a little there, buying things when she had the coin to spare, but official patronage meant a yearly stipend – and giving up a percentage of profits was well worth it, when she knew the two Uzumaki needed it.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Amayasaki, “Official patronage? You do know that you might as well be declaring yourself head of the Uzumaki with that.”, curious to know if she knew exactly what she was doing with this stunt.

Sakura shrugged, “It will only be until Naruto is ready to take his rightful place as head. His line is more direct than mine. When Naruto reaches chuunin, I will pass the mantle in at least name, if not in reality.”.


	9. Of Medics and Shadowed Fans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the Incident with the drunks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I (unhappily) do not own Naruto.

In the evening, after retrieving Naruto from Mikoto, Amayasaki set up camp in their usual place before ‘leaving’.

Sakura had done a quick switch, creating a clone and sending Amayasaki to see if there were any D-rank missions she could take right then, and letting her stay with Naruto.

Barring the day’s incident, she had managed two months of official D-rank missions with Genma without going a single day of not doing at least one mission. Right now, though, with him sent out for a two-day C-rank prior to the Incident with the drunks, she wanted an easy D-rank to earn the last bit of coin to reach what she needed to pay the one person in Konoha willing to lease an apartment to Naruto.

It was ridiculously high of a price for a tiny room above a bar in the Red-Light District, but it was inside. Soon it would be fall, and cold, so she didn’t have much choice if she wanted Naruto out of the cold and wet before winter.

She wouldn’t ask her immigrant friends, because frankly, their living situations weren’t much better than what Naruto’s would be. And she wouldn’t ask Kakashi, because she had this figured out.

She’d solved this months ago – it had just taken this long to get the man to agree and for her to meet his conditions. (Particularly since D-ranks didn’t actually pay that well – hence why there weren’t too many career genin – and she’d taken to gambling under a henge. She’d liked betting, liked the friendly competition, and just took it to another level. Pachinko and games of chance were her games of choice – and she’d gotten good at them.)

Sakura waved a short greeting _guard, your watch_ to Cat, leaning against Naruto as she concentrated on channeling healing chakra to her side, probing at her healed wound and speeding up the healing of the bruise there. Her chakra levels were still low so it took a long time for her to pull up the remaining dregs not drained by her continued use of a clone, and bruises were still the more advanced of the healing she knew. It was easier to seal a cut than it was to dispel a bruise.

Yawning as she saw Cat flicker his hands in sight, _will guard, sleep_ , Sakura shelved her plans for studying the medical scroll she’d recently found – that she suspected had been the personal notes of the greatest medical ninja of their age. As she fell asleep, her mind wandered to how formal training might be necessary.

She could go far with what she taught herself and what she read, but she was reaching the limit of what she could do on her own without _some_ instruction. With the scroll she had just found, she thought that she could put off the need for instruction for a while longer, but the fact remained that she should think about who and how to approach for actual training.

Considering that the medical ninja that had healed her in the hospital had been competent enough to heal a fatal wound like she’d had, she knew that he could have healed the bruising and choose not to. She suspected that he’d wanted to see if she could heal it herself.

Her last thought for the night was using that – but not as Amayasaki; Amayasaki was a fighter, chaos and destruction and a human typhoon, not a healer.

~

Sakura sent a clone as herself, and escorted Naruto to the Academy as Amayasaki – with a hard glare to anyone who looked twice at Naruto, hackles up after the day before. She was deeply pleased when she could see her immigrant friends already putting up the Uzu kamon in shop windows, giving a rather shark-ish proud grin as she made her way toward Kakashi’s apartment.

Sakura had made her appearance at the Memorial Stone for her daily visit with her father and now mother, and seen him start for there, so she knew the apartment was empty, and figured that he would show at some point of the day. She had intentions of only waiting an hour or so before she would track him down, but she wouldn’t impose on his ritualistic visit to talk to dead friends. However, they really did need to talk about his aggressive adoption.

It really wasn’t something they could put off for long. Particularly when it wouldn’t just be their standing with each other, but their standing in the village that had changed.

The whole reason she’d been looking to incite a situation for this very outcome, was rather time-sensitive as it would only take one suspicion of the authenticity of Amayasaki and everything would come crumbling down. Sandaime could protect her to a degree still; as nothing that had happened would raise her security clearance too much, and thus put her at risk, but she was already skirting the line for knowing too much.

Particularly not with how Sandaime had alluded to training a new assistant to replace her mother, and that Amayasaki and Iruka-sensei were his first choices.

Honestly, Sakura thought most of the reason why he wanted Amayasaki was because it was a village-bound post, and it was a way to protect her without making it obvious.

It had been unstated but clear, that she wasn’t able to be officially considered until she was at least a genin – and it had sounded like she would be more of an assistant to the Assistant until she was at least a chuunin.

Sakura almost-wanted Sandaime to officially offer the position right then – not only would it be village-bound and thus enable her to be at Naruto’s side 24/7, but it would give her access to an inordinate amount of information – but hoped he held off for a little longer. She wanted Amayasaki to have a bit of a reputation before being village-bound, but just enough of one that if the Council pushed against Naruto, she could push back with some of her own clout.

However, she would accept it in a heartbeat – not that she would ever turn it down – because it was no longer just Naruto depending on her – the Uchiha could use an ally in a strong position like that, even as the assistant to the Assistant – and if needed, she was sure that she would have Kakashi and Mikoto’s reputations to back her up in a heartbeat.

Sakura’s thoughts were cut short when a throat pointedly cleared.

She’d been fiddling with Kakashi’s seal of entry, trying to adjust it so it would accept Naruto in an emergency, aware of the other chakra signatures in the building, particularly that the neighbor she’d rarely sensed – and realized why when she’d seen him in the hospital – was home.

Sakura didn’t rush to turn around; just finished her fiddling with the seal to accept another chakra signature – rather preferring to have Naruto actually there before adding his chakra, instead of having to fiddle around with unstable seals to house an amount of chakra Naruto had yet to learn to adjust that lingered on the edges of her own from their constant proximity to each other.

Amayasaki smiled, just a hint of sharp teeth visible, “Yakushi-sensei, I thought I had recognized your chakra in the hospital.”.

He raised an eyebrow, “Do you make a habit of breaking and entering into Hatake’s apartment, Uzumaki-san?”, and she made an ‘meh’ motion with her hand, “I don’t consider it breaking and entering. I cased the place and made myself keys, then use that access to make sure his place is livable. And it’s not like he doesn’t know I have been here. If he really had an issue, he could lock me out.”. He didn’t look impressed at her reasoning, “Does he know you have ‘keys’? Or is he just assuming you would break in anyway?”, standing there with sleep clothes rumpled, dark grey hair ruffled with one side particularly fluffy while barely still tied back, eyes half-lidded behind askew glasses, arms crossed over his chest while leaning against his doorframe.

She shrugged, “He knows I’m getting in some way without setting off his _very_ -lethal traps. He’d know if he checked his locks more often.”, not really caring, as Kakashi had known who was breaking in for months now, and if he still didn’t know how she was getting in so easily, she wasn’t going to _give_ the answer to him. Something about the doctor was also telling her that he wouldn’t say anything either, as long as she didn’t endanger his patient’s life, because he honestly didn’t care unless it could negatively impact him or his work.

His eyes drifted to her side, “Your wound, how is it?”, his tone all but demanding that she show it to him.

Sakura lifted one side of her top from her haramaki and pulled it up until he had a good look at where the wound was, or more accurately, where it had been. His eyes sharpened at seeing the bruise gone completely, not a hint of her injury remaining less than 24 hours later, “Did you take care of the bruise yourself?”.

She scoffed, “I’m no good at healin’. Uzumaki heal fast and are hardier to boot. Learnin’ just never is a priority.”, grin sharp, “Got to land a hit first, and beat our endurance. We don’t go down easy – the wounds we _do_ take, healers can’t do much for anyway.”. Sakura scratched at the side of her face, making for the appearance of thinking back on something, “There’s a brat that does help Naru-chan and I when we’re hurt. Civilian girl. She healed the last of the bruisin’, sped it up, when I asked ‘cause Naru-chan kept looking guilty when I agitated the bruise.”.

Yakushi straightened some, eyes intense in their focus on her, as medics were in short supply to begin with, and one that showed natural talent, that was in high demand, “She have any formal training?”, trying to think of any of the younger trainees that she could be talking about.

Amayasaki shrugged, letting her chakra seep into the door and charge the lock, so that it was more resistant – and thus more explosive – to anyone trying the same tricks she’d figured out, “Eh, don’t think so. She’s from a branch of the Haruno merchant clan, and civilians don’t much want their womenfolk to learn anything other than how to be a good, dutiful wife and mother, quiet and subservient to their men. Civilians don’t much approve of their women learning anything that can distract them for that, nor gaining a spine because medics can’t back down when someone is injured and being obstinate.”, her disdain clear. Sakura thought it stupid honestly; thought the shinobi had the right view – their women needed to be their equal, because they were the last line of defense to the next generation, and if they fell, so did their families. Medics were safer than most merchant caravans, yet civilians would bring their pregnant wives through treacherous terrain and bandit-infested areas, but refuse to let girls learn anything more complicated than basic first aid.

Yakushi sneered slightly, “Indeed.”, thinking of how he’d lost more than one potential medic because they came from civilian stock and their families refused to let them be trained. He eyed Amayasaki, “Do you know if she wants formal training?”, having the vague suspicion that there was no civilian friend, remembering that natural skill she’d displayed, and feeling like that she was talking about herself but for whatever reason wasn’t saying so.

Sakura pretended to think about it, “I think so. She wanted to be a kunoichi originally but flunked out because her chakra levels were considered too shallow and her body too weak to compensate for it. But her control – she may not have a lot of chakra, but uses every scrap to the maximum.”.

Yakushi leaned forward, moving off the wall, choosing to play along, “If she makes an appearance at the start of my next shift – seven tomorrow morning, I’ll assume she has an interest in being formally trained.”, then turned around, moving back into his apartment only to pause in the doorway, “What’s her name?”.

Amayasaki smiled broadly at his back, “Takeno Ume.”, pleased that now that she could get actual training so that she never had to rely on other people’s competence again, never had to rely on their benevolence for her and hers health.

~

Sakura was on her daily stalk of Sasuke.

More often than not, she left a clone in her place so she could train as Amayasaki, because she’d started overtures toward her aunt and uncle that she wanted to come back but Sakura wasn’t supposed to be much more than a girly-girl in their eyes. However, one activity that her aunt had expressed interest in when she’d ‘run into’ them in the market while on the look-out for Kakashi, was as predicted – her ‘crush’ on Sasuke.

Her aunt had all but encouraged her to stalk him, and as Sakura had finished all of her Academy homework – was actually a fair bit ahead considering what they were learning – there was nothing else really for her to do as Sakura. Amayasaki was busy tracking down the errant silver-haired bastard that didn’t really want to have a needed conversation.

Her stalking served two purposes (beyond the appearance of her ‘crush’ on Sasuke) was convenient; it allowed her to keep an eye on him, as par Itachi’s request – and it allowed her to covertly meet with Itachi and Shisui when she wanted, as it was an open secret among shinobi (those who bothered to look anyway) that Itachi basically stalked his brother when in-village, while Shisui took any opportunity to harass Sasuke and Itachi whenever he could, and thus could be found that way.

She knew the moment the two recognized she was in the vicinity, because Shisui’s controlled chakra spiked slightly with a mix of glee and worry, before he was next to her, Itachi following a second later, calm to his cousin’s excitement, “Sakura-chan!”.

Sakura side-eyed him, raising an eyebrow and managing to express all her disdain for how Sasuke twitched and glared their direction due to his whisper-yell. He deflated a little under the look, pouting as he looked at Itachi with minor accusation, “Look at what you’ve done! You taught Sakura your _Really-Shisui-and-you’re-considered-a-shinobi_ look.”, and she smirked, “Nah, learned that one all on my own. Comes naturally, really.”, enjoying how he deflated further, catching how the corner of Itachi’s lips quirked up for a second with his own amusement.

It really was too much fun poking at Shisui. Sakura could see why the little humor Itachi expressed was almost always at his cousin’s expense (or whatever poor saps got caught in his latest minefield of traps in one of the Training Fields).

Sakura made a mental note of dragging Kakashi into Training Field 4, and kicking him into the midst of Itachi’s latest minefield once Amayasaki caught up with him. She thought his pain once he tripped one of those traps would be enough penance for making her hunt the bastard down – for using his chakra hiding in hers as a way to evade her.

She was serious after a moment of basking in Shisui’s pouting, “Hm, those two elders on the Council, Sandaime’s old teammates, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, they meet with Shimura Danzo in secret. I’ve been seeing them doing so for months, and they’re good at it – I only noticed because I was hypervigilant for Naruto, and his guard was conspicuously absent from my senses.”.

Both of the Uchiha’s eyes sharpened, a deadly air around them at the information, at the knowledge that the Hokage’s advisors were likely against them, against the Uchiha. Shisui’s eyes were red-tinted as he met Sakura’s, “Did they see you?”.

Sakura’s lips twitched up into a sharp-toothed smirk, “No, and even if they did, I was pulling a prank then. Usually am, and I’m almost always around Naruto, so no one thinks twice of my keeping an eye on our surroundings.”, before cocking her head a little with a bit of a deadly air of her own, “The ANBU you met, Cat, he’s _around_ half the time, and he’s been giving me signals the last couple of months since I created Amayasaki, if I come a little too close to drawing attention around Shimura.”, giving them a glimpse of the kunoichi she would be.

Itachi met her eyes, calm to the quiet fury in hers, “Shimura is not a man you want looking at you. Take extra precautions from now on if you insist on watching him.”, catching how she’d implied that she’d been, was, watching the one-eyed war hawk.

Shisui’s eyes went a little redder at that, voice a quiet and cool anger, “You were watching _Shimura_?”, sparks of fear in his eyes.

Sakura looked down at that, not regretting that she had, but that she worried him. Shisui was someone she looked up to, someone whose opinion mattered to her, as he’s been nothing but honest in his intentions and actions towards her, had thought that she was _worth_ something. She didn’t want to disappoint him, didn’t want him distracted worrying about her when there were things with more teeth watching to take a bite in the dark.

Her voice was quiet, barely heard, “There was something about the way he watched Amayasaki when I met him. It was unnerving. There was too much focus. A little anger. He was angry about Amayasaki stepping forward for Naruto, but different than anyone else was. It felt like he was angry because I was interfering in his plans for Naruto.”, expressing for once the feeling that she’d gotten, had fostered with each instance where darker-red-masked ANBU were gone and Naruto was put at risk, had come to believe with each instance she suspected that _only_ darker-red-masked ANBU were around the older man. She didn’t know why he had plans regarding Naruto, but something was telling her that she didn’t like it, wouldn’t like them. There was something _wrong_ with the man.

He made every shinobi sense she had, go deadly still in watchful wait and barely-leashed violence.

The naked ambition that she’d seen as he’d looked at Sandaime for a moment during her admittance to Konoha had scared her. It had infuriated her because she _knew_ the man wanted to be Hokage. Not like Naruto, who would work for it and earn it. But who would take it by sly words and cruel plots and hard actions.

She did _not_ want him _ever_ becoming Hokage; she would do damn well near-anything to prevent it.

He had been a secondary reason to why she would never turn down becoming the assistant to the Hokage’s Assistant, because an Assistant was often in close proximity to the Hokage at most times. It was not unusual for an Assistant to spend the time not assigned to other duties in the Hokage’s Office, doing paperwork. (It was not unusual, though not spoken of and only told from Assistant to Assistant, and she’d only heard from her mother, that an Assistant served a second role. They were another line of defense to the Hokage – one less obvious than the ANBU assigned to the Hokage, and capable of dolling out less-lethal interventions.

If her being there made him think twice about acting, then _dammit_ , she would stand in his way.)

Itachi went very still, and his eyes brightened to a Sharingan-red, as clearly, he understood something that she did not – he understood at least part of Danzo’s plan, and was _not happy_.

Shisui had to clasp a hand on his shoulder when the younger Uchiha nearly radiated off killing intent, before giving a forced smile to Sakura, clearly trying to move the conversation away from potential coups and treasonous elders, “So, I heard Mikoto-sama took you on as a student. Good for you! That woman could not give you a better example of what a kunoichi should be.”.

Sakura knew exactly what he was doing, but allowed it as she watched Itachi take shallow breaths, his eyes locked on Sasuke, and she suspected, trying to reassure himself that his brother, his most precious person, was still there, still _safe_ , “She came in while Amayasaki was in the hospital. Amayasaki must have been there for all of an hour, and the woman knew she was there. I honestly haven’t figured out if she had an eye out for any news on Amayasaki, or if her information network is just that good to hear about it. Or if her connections to the Uchiha Military Police told her.”.

Shisui’s lips twitched a little into something a little less forced, “Probably all three. Mikoto-sama is scary good at learning about things.”, as the woman still held him in awe about her information gathering skills even after years of knowing intimately the woman’s eyes and ears regarding things. (He still hadn’t forgotten that first out-of-village mission he’d taken, and the woman had been at his house with his mother. Casually sipping tea before offering up a packet of information that would help him massively, all less than an hour after getting the mission, and all she’d said was that Ita-chan would have been sad if his best friend died from a lack of information. Thinking back on it, he suspected that said lack of information had been purposeful, and the woman had saved his life without a blink of her dark eyes.)

Itachi gradually relaxed from his tense stillness, but his eyes tracked Sasuke too intently still, “Kaa-san admires initiative. She is also fond of green tea with a hint of rosemary.”.

Sakura smiled at his help, sharp teeth hidden once more, pleased that they were respecting her skills enough that they weren’t outright telling her to stop and trusting her enough to know her own limits and to know what she risked if she was caught.

Shisui leaned against Itachi’s back, tilting his head back against the younger’s neck to stare up at the few clouds out, “Hm, Sakura-chan, you know anything about how a number of civilians, all foreign-born, most from Kiri, are now proclaiming themselves as having Uzumaki patronage at their homes and shops, some of them wearing them as vassals?”. He didn’t need to look at her to know her answer, already knowing that she did, and having suspicions on why she’d initiated it, considering that it was an extension of _why she’d made Amayasaki in the first place_.

Sakura plucked at the vibrant red of her current clothes, still vaguely displeased at how despite it being good quality, Hikari’s was still _better_ but that _Sakura_ couldn’t wear it, “They were concerned over Amayasaki and Naruto. They would have all showed up at the hospital in support after having felt her chakra spike with rage and worry before fading too far, but the ANBU get . . twitchy . . when too many of them meet up. Amayasaki offered up what little she could – the protection of the Uzumaki name, and the knowledge that if they need her, she will stand for them. It was the least that could be done when they were willing to do the same.”.

The two Uchiha were quiet as they realized that whether she meant to or not, Amayasaki – Sakura – had built up a support base for Naruto and herself, with a loyalty that most couldn’t claim outside of immediate family. Some not even that, and others maybe just their genin teams. It was almost applause-worthy – and mildly concerning for the part of them that thought primarily of how that could be bad for the village.

Sakura didn’t let them dwell on whatever had them looking vaguely unsettled – or as much as typical Uchiha fashion allowed, so a small furrowing of brows and the slightest touch of unease to chakra – “If you want quality cloth, check out Hikari-chan’s shop. Amayasaki had this most beautiful kusode with a wave-motif from there.”, not so much switching subjects but telling them that if they wished to find out more, that was where to go.

She trusted Hikari’s judgement, and believed in her strength, because without proof of something concerning, the two would use only normal investigative tactics instead of involving the sharingan, and the woman had managed to escape Kiri without giving up secrets so she severely doubted they could get anything that she didn’t want to give.

It was implied that she was only giving Hikari’s name because she trusted them, and that when she said ‘you’, she really meant Mikoto. Sakura wanted those two women colluding, those two incredibly intelligent women ostracized for no other reason than where and who they were born to, because she had no doubt that with the support of the other’s connections and contacts, they would achieve great things – already were on their own, but _together_ there would be no limit for them. Which was exactly what she wanted; she didn’t have the experience required to convince the mountain to move, but both were veterans of the game, and where she could fail by virtue of her youth, their wiliness could (and if they couldn’t, well, she would take more drastic routes to achieve her ends).

There was a speculative glint to Itachi’s dark eyes as he watched Sakura for a long moment, able to see glimpses of a kunoichi that would be renowned the world over – through he suspected the true grasp of her machinations would escape all those but who she intended once she gained more experience, but her determination to get her goals would be second to none. There was something to admire in the lengths she would go to protect those she considered precious; it resonated well with the core values of the Uchiha of family before all else.

Even if he didn’t agree with everything the Uchiha stood for, everything the Uchiha had become, that core value was ingrained in every child of the clan. He’d just chosen to interrupt it with the Will of Fire, and considered the village as part of his family to protect, with special emphasis on those he was close to. Sakura seemed to have internalized a similar value, if less broadly, and he could respect that as one shinobi to another.

He gave a small nod, and turning back to Sasuke, spoke, “Daisuke Tea Shop is worth visiting, if you have the coin.”.

Sakura had stalked him enough to know what tea shop he was referring to, which was one of his favorites as he frequented there on a fairly regular basis in particular. He tended to most often frequent shops that had the patronage of the Uchiha, or they soon did through him. It was a mark of quality she’d found, to visit the shops with the patronage of the Uchiha, as Itachi did not tolerate regular visits to places that brewed sub-standard tea.

Her lips quirked a little, as she realized that he’d returned the implied statement, offering trust in return. It made her wonder what so special about Daisuke Tea Shop in particular though.

Shisui caught what Itachi did, and wondered if the reason the two were getting along so well despite how both were doing things that to any other, were suspicious enough to warrant either a visit from ANBU or a visit to T&I, was because they could sense kindred spirits in the other. Ever since he’d met Sakura, he’d see things in her that he saw in Itachi, saw how similar they were at the very core even if they were outwardly very different and would take very different methods to the same goal. He wondered if perhaps part of why he’d been so fascinated with Sakura, why he felt so attached, was because he saw a lot of Itachi in her, and while he did his best, Itachi was strong and could hold his own, hadn’t needed him to stand up for him really ever, so wanted to do right by his cousin (even if she wasn’t actually his cousin, the two blurred in his mind some now, particularly when they gave him the same look).

He scratched at the back of his head, staring up at the clouds and wondering what it was like to be truly free like them, and to have something they would forsake anything and everything for, “I can look into the ongoing investigation about Amayasaki’s stabbing, if you want.”.

Shisui figured that she would want to know how the situation was being handled, and he would offer that to give her some peace of mind that it wasn’t just being swept under the rug – he would be looking into it anyway, because such a thing was unacceptable; Naruto and Amayasaki were recognized citizens of Konoha, and that had been a straight-up murder attempt. He was old enough to know why the village disliked Naruto so much, and he’d always been of the opinion that only the stupid tried to kill the monster by freeing it from its jailor. Naruto was just a kid anyways, it wasn’t right, wasn’t _just_ , to blame him for the atrocities of his prisoner. What use was it to blame him, when they should be _thanking_ him for keeping a monster imprisoned.

He turned his head to look at her pointedly, having seen no sign of any pain or stiffness in any of her movements, and she smirked, “I’ll take you up on that offer.”, before she patted at her side, “Yakushi-sensei is an amazing medic.”.

Shisui lost a little color, having thought for whatever reason that considering that Amayasaki hadn’t been discovered to be Sakura yet, that Sakura had made a clone act as the older girl, and that she’d just acted wounded or done a quick substitution of clones if it hadn’t been a scratch. He hadn’t really thought that the injury to Amayasaki had been real, only that he’d heard had been a stabbing, but he hadn’t learned any details yet, so he’d been unaware that it had been a serious wound. Hadn’t thought it had been worse than a minor wound if it was, and here he was hearing that it had been serious, as well as, if he was reading her gesture right, life-threatening with the proximity to an artery, a lung, and numerous other organs.

Sakura didn’t let him ask if she was okay, didn’t let him get angry about her brush with death, smiling disarmingly, trying to convey that he needn’t be angry because retribution was coming in the form of a defensive Hatake protecting his new cubs and it would be _fierce_ ; Sakura really wanted to be present when he got his chance at those drunken chuunin, because it would be _glorious_ , and Kakashi could be _vicious_ when protecting his, something she approved of whole-heartedly, “Ma, if you could also get them to do a formal follow-up with Amayasaki, that would be wonderful. I’m sure she’ll have questions for the Military Police.”.

She had actual questions, of course, mostly involving what their procedures for dealing with civilian-shinobi altercations were so she could implement them the next time somebody crossed the line with Naruto, but she also had another reason. It had occurred to her that a way to integrate herself with the Uchiha other than through Mikoto – which wouldn’t exactly be in anyone’s faces, and more between just them, other than ‘they’re being friendly’ – had been staring her in the face.

The Uchiha Clan Military Police was primarily Uchiha, had always primarily been Uchiha, but there were the occasional non-Uchiha members. As far as she knew, there was no actual rules against non-Uchiha joining, it just had been that few expressed any interest in it. There had been a reason why the Police had been created with the Uchiha in mind, what with how most had an identity that considered themselves just, or in seeing justice done.

Sakura thought she would express interest, and see where that lead her.

If that failed, it wasn’t like she couldn’t find another way to make it bluntly obvious that Amayasaki stood with the Uchiha. She figured that if nothing else, she would loudly proclaim herself a friend of Uchiha to as many people as possible, which would get her point across.

(At the least, that should buy them some time to get a lock on why the Uchiha were being made out to be untrustworthy, and see what they could do to change that.)

Having achieved what she’d set out to communicate, regarding the two cousins, Sakura pretended to stumble out onto the path with a giggle, “Sasuke-kun!”. She ran over to him, catching his arm to hug tight to her chest with a giggle, “What a coincidence, Sasuke-kun! You, me, out on a walk through Konoha. Must be fate!”.

Her grip was strong despite his attempts to pull away in disgust, and she smiled at him with something less over the top and giggly, “I wonder what the chances are that we could end up on the same genin team, Sasuke-kun.”.

Sasuke looked a little confused at seeing something almost mean-spirited and sharp on the girl’s face, watching as her eyes fluttered shut and she squeezed closer and not able to break her grip, “I’m sure the chances are quite good honestly. You’re top of the class overall, and I’m top of the class academically. We’ll likely become two-thirds of a team in five years if we keep up the hard work, and the sooner we can learn to cooperate, the better our chances we’ll pass whatever test pre-genin take to officially become genin with a jounin instructor.”.

Her eyes flicked to where Itachi and Shisui were as she smiled, “Hm, we could help each other, learn to be a team at our pace before we get thrown together. It’ll be fitting, I think, if we get our teamwork to rival that of the Ino-Shika-Chou dynamic.”.

He sneered, “I don’t want a fangirl for a teammate, nor a weak civilian.”, making to try and leave but she hadn’t let go yet so he didn’t get further than leaning away from her as she’d refused to loosen her grip.

This time there was no confusing the sharp edge to her smile, “I don’t like you like that. I’d rather be your friend than your girlfriend, but I stand out for not fawning over you so I took up an act.”, grip hard enough that she’d leave bruises if she was less careful, “I’m _not_ weak. I’m just playing the game. I saw how they were trying to promote you out of our year that first day, and I have my reasons for staying in our year, so I didn’t want them to think I’m special. Attention is bad anyway; the wrong sort of people starts trying to use you, and I have enough of a temper I’d go for the throat if they thought they could manipulate me into doing what I don’t want.”.

She giggled when she felt a classmate get close enough to hearing range, stalking Sasuke herself, and steered him away and out of hearing before continuing, “My aunt is against me being a shinobi, and wants to marry me off to a civilian merchant before my ‘value’ goes too far down, and conveniently, you’re among the only clans that would get her to budge from that idea. Learn to tolerate me at the least, and I’ll help you lose some of your stalkers.”.

His sneer was more of a pout in her eyes, making him look a little like a squirrel with his puffed-out cheeks, “How do I know your fangirling was just an act!? You were stalking me!”.

This time her eyes lingered longer in the direction of Shisui, “Stalking, recon, all the same thing. Your cousin stalked me for a while – still does on occasion. Considering he saved my life, he gets a bit of a free pass as long as it doesn’t become creepy – though I’ve already yelled and called him pervert in a crowd, so eh. It was stalking that got me into the Academy though; it said I had talent when I’ve managed to ditch him.”.

He blinked rapidly a couple of times, clearly trying to figure out what cousin, “The curly-haired one. Likes to shunshin everywhere.”, and he sneered slightly, “Shisui.”, before outright pouting, “The idiot likes to steal away with Nii-sama. He’s like a burr you can’t shake.”.

Sakura had to fight to not laugh at the childish jealously Sasuke was radiating while talking about Shisui, particularly with regards to ‘the idiot likes to steal away with Nii-sama’. It really became an effort when she heard an indignant squawk in the background, _“Idiot-!”_ , before it was abruptly cut off.

Sasuke eyed the bushes she’d originally come from skeptically, hand drifting to his kunai pouch as if seriously contemplating throwing a kunai into the leaves, fully aware that it was likely was his cousin there. If he realized that it had been his brother to shut up their cousin, then he didn’t show it – well, not beyond the rather hopeful gleam in his eyes.

She felt a little bad for taking up some of Itachi’s free time when seeing how Sasuke would be content with just scraps of his brother’s attention even while craving more. She might have given up the little time she took up so that the two – because Itachi relaxed a little when he had a chance to spend time with his younger brother in a way that she got the feeling he rarely did, and he deserved to be happy – could spend time together, but their cause was too important. They were doing this _for_ their precious younger siblings – blood relations or not – and if that meant short-term sacrifices for long-term safety and the potential for happiness not overshadowed with fear, then there was no way she could even try to convince Itachi to do more than (more-or-less) adore from afar (as he already did).

Sakura wanted him back on track to why she’d approached him, “So, are you in, or not?”, and not focused on the other two Uchiha or connect that she’d come from where the two were.

His scowl faded some as he quit dwelling on potentially being fooled by her act, “There’s no way you have as good of grades as I do! You’re just a _civilian_.”, even if didn’t disappear entirely with his displeasure still high.

She shrugged, “I’m a paper-ninja; I’m good with theory and book-learning, and my memory’s not something to laugh at. I really only need to read something once to remember it and to understand it.”, before scowling a little herself, still irritated that she couldn’t test her mettle against a Nara because the boy was so _lazy_ , “It helps that Nara-san isn’t trying, or our class rankings would change. You beat me at physical tasks while nearly matching me academically, so you’re still top of the class.”.

If it wouldn’t have drawn attention, she would have seen if she could challenge Shikamaru at shogi. She still might once she’d seen the Uchiha back in good standing, as it would be more conceivable for a pre-genin of a year or two, maybe even three, then a fresh one, to present something of a challenge to a Nara than one still in the first year.

He eyed her for a moment, “There’s _no way_ that a no-name kunoichi has any chance of being on a team with an _Uchiha_.”, almost looking down his nose at her.

Sakura grinned a little sharp, and let him catch a shadow of a glimpse of her sharp teeth to remind him that not all greats came from legendary clans, voice soft enough that only he heard, “Hm, not if you rig the game and play a long-con to fit a team model.”.

She had him start walking away from where the other two Uchiha were, not wanting them to really hear this, because this was going to be a surprise for everyone who doubted them, and the ultimate proof of their subterfuge skills. If it also meant she could ensure who would be at Naruto’s back (and have Sasuke’s as well), then that was an ‘unintended’ bonus.

He tried to look nonchalant about what she was talking about, but he was curious. She knew he would be; he was a second son, a spare heir, little was expected of him other than not bringing shame to the Uchiha name, and particularly with Itachi as a brother, he would never be considered able to measure up, “Have you heard of the generational genin team, ‘Team 7’?”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That last line here, I’ve been wanting to say it (well, something of the like) since I rebooted Master of Crows to version 2.0, roughly a year ago now, as it is about half the reason why I went further back in time to start with.
> 
> It is EMPATHIZED in this chapter why the tags of Alternate Universe - Canon and Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence are used.


	10. Author's Notice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little note about the future of this story.
> 
>  
> 
> In which the writer curses a little, mostly as an expression of how utter Done they are with their own mistakes.

So, I've been getting a few comments here and there about two main issues.

Thank you for pointing them out, those of you that did, constructive criticism is a wonderful thing after all.

1.) My run-on sentences. My number one flaw in writing honestly. Some of that  _was_ intentional, but not as much as I meant.

Also, there was a little bit of my mind going leaps and bounds faster than my hands, so a word or two was skipped over. And I kept missing it because I knew what I meant, and therefore filled in the blanks.

2.) Some of my Japanese grammar.

I'm typically only using a term, not a phrase, as fitting to the culture we've been given by Kishimoto, but that does not mean I don't screw up grammar. I'm aware of this, and have been retroactively correcting the ones I find, but long chapters, I've missed some.

Apparently the same ones multiple times, because again, I knew what I meant, and my mind filled in the blanks despite _itself trying to find the mistakes._

 

So, having successfully having had my gallbladder removed, and no longer having blurred vision thanks to getting a little of the anti-nausea patch in my eyes, with my groove back, I went back to writing.

(I lost my groove for a bit thanks to having inspiration, and being unable to look at a screen for more than a few minutes with blurred vision for almost five days, and giving myself quite the headache. I got it back though! Thank you Feline Behavior! Something lighter and less heavy than either the world-building here, or Stark Reality in general.  _Just_ what was needed.)

Was writing chapter eleven while waiting for jackim to finish looking over chapter ten, wrote something as I tried to figure out where the end of the chapter was, and had an epiphany.

I had managed to not quite forget, but not really mention a part of one of the sub-plots. So I was thinking about where I could sneak it in, thought  _what the hell else did I miss_ , and decided to comb over chapter one again. Just to see if I would catch anything major, now that there was some distance between when I last went over it and current times.

 _Oh my Gawd_. I'm so sorry. I had been thinking that I was just being my typical long sentences, because I hadn't been _happy_ with it when I posted it, but not  _really_ unhappy. I had not realized I had been subjecting you nice people to a first-draft-like thing. I cringed a little when rereading just the first  _page_.

So, revamp!

I'm not updating  _Shisou no Karasu_  again - not just because I've been informed that what I meant, was not what I wrote. (I meant Master of Crows. My grammar was so _wrong_.) Thank you, my sucky foreign grammar, my arch-nemesis you.

It will be instead, re-uploading as _Karasu no deshi_  in the near future. (First chapter - and probably less than the original first chapter for easier digestion of content - should be up by tomorrow.)

(If that is not Crow's Disciple/Student, so help me, I'm just uploading it in the English no matter how much I want the multiple meanings of one word. I might anyway.

If none of you nice people that have been pointing out my Japanese mistakes can confirm this  _is_ what I meant this time by tomorrow, I'm just going to upload it as Crow's Disciple, because _fuck it_. I don't want to perpetuate bad grammar _intentionally_.)

**Author's Note:**

> This idea of a story has been in the works for at least two years, on five different revisions. The first four chapters are pretty much set in stone, with regards to plot, by now. It came about mainly because I was unhappy with character development. Kishimoto did a wonderful job world-building, but character development, not so much. Most of the development of characters after Shippuden kinda sucked, particularly for the female characters and side characters, because there were just too many. There was build-up done in the beginning that was basically disregarded and not followed through well.  
> This is my attempt to follow through on some of that. Also, to give a little more depth to relationships. Maybe a little of a fix-it too, because Sakura's character was kind-of originally created to be an annoyance, just a fill-in for a third character of the genin in Team 7. I wanted to do her a bit of justice.


End file.
